Three trustees walk out of BPP meet
Three trustees walkout of BPP meet today
Anahita Desai, Hoshang Jal and Adil Malia left the weekly trustees’ meet this evening as former BPP chairwoman Armaity Tirandaz was permitted to attend on Zoom. Following a fall in December in which she fractured both her hips, Tirandaz is housebound. Without her and trustee Xerxes Dastur who has been absenting himself on account of illnesses in his family, newly appointed chairman Viraf Mehta would be in a minority. He can only count on trustee Maharukh Noble’s vote.
Whether attendance by Zoom and voting is permissible or not when holding a physical meeting of the board will have to be decided by the trustees and/or be litigated in the courts. The trustees felt the trust "cannot mix a physical meeting with a trustee/s on Zoom. Many clauses of the Election Scheme dealing with attendance, quorum, voting, having a physical meeting will become meaningless. We want clarity on these points before permitting any trustee to participate via Zoom. We didn’t want to be part of a meeting which as per our reading was not following the Scheme of Elections. We want clarity on all these grey areas before we do something that will create a precedent.”
Mehta, however was reportedly adamant the January 16 meet should include Tirandaz’s Zoom presence prompted the walkout. Parsiana messaged Mehta seeking his views. He replied, " You’re misinformed. As a trustee Tirandaz has a right to participate in the meeting, even via zoom. It’s within the guidelines of the scheme of elections. That’s all that was stated.”.
Parsiana
File photo of BPP trustees following the May 2022 elections
