ADC, WAPIZ served notice

After bearing the brunt of countless attacks and allegations in the fortnightly WAPIZ (World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis) Page published in the Afternoon Despatch & Courier (ADC), real estate developer Zarir Bhathena served a legal notice on the editor and publisher of the ADC, five founding members of WAPIZ and two WAPIZ members who allegedly edit the WAPIZ Page. Referring to an article titled "Figures speak for themselves” in the issue of ADC dated February 2, 2006 in which Bhathena is allegedly termed an "unscrupulous opportunistic builder,” Bhathe­na’s lawyer Homa Petit, a partner in the noted Vigil Juris law firm, writes:

"We are instructed to state that the said article is defamatory of our client and the same is calculated to lower our client’s reputation and esteem not only in his profession but in society generally for which you all are liable criminally as well as civilly as hereinafter stated.

"The article bears, at the side of the caption, a photograph of our client and under the photograph bears the words ‘Opportunistic builder Bhathena.’ The article thereafter proceeds to make observations about Mr Bhathena namely that he has made ‘an obscenely large personal profit’ and that he has set the worst kind of precedent for unscrupulous Parsi builders ‘to take advantage of our Agiary lands.’ The article then proceeds to state ‘Bhathena is no "victim” — he is just an unscrupulous opportunistic builder!’ The article is also full of conjectures and surmises and it is obvious that the same has been published with malicious motives as part of a

sustained smear campaign, intended to malign our client and to ridicule our client in the eyes of the general public and society at large. So far as you, The Afternoon, are concerned, the write-up being per se defamatory, false and malicious, the same should not have been published and merely by stating in small print at the bottom of the page that the contents of ‘these pages do not represent the views of this paper’ does not absolve you of liability in respect of statements which, on the face of it, are per se defamatory...

Petit notes that WAPIZ claims "that the page on which the concerned article is published goes to 6,000 Parsi Irani households. This itself shows the wide extent to which publicity has been admittedly given.

"Without prejudice to what is stated hereinabove, in any event, our client hereby calls upon you to forthwith publicly apologize in the next issue of your paper on the front page with the caption ‘WAPIZ apologizes to Mr Zarir Bha­thena.’

"Please note that if you fail to comply with the aforesaid, we have definite instructions to institute criminal and civil proceedings against each of you, entirely at your risk as to costs and our client will also claim damages which our client is presently quantifying.”