BHC: New houses for poor

In two cases before the divisional bench of the Bombay High Court Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Dr Dhanan­jaya Chandrachud, on March 17 and 18, 2009, the jurists suggested a retired Supreme Court judge be appointed agreeable to the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) and the aggrieved parties on whose behalf the Alert Zoroastrians Association (AZA) has been waging a legal battle.

Until the matter is resolved between the two factions, all matters regarding housing allotments to the 104 allottees shortlisted by the previous trustees of the BPP are to be kept on hold as are all legal proceedings before the Joint Charity Commissioner’s (JtCC) office.

On March 18 when the issue of selling flats on ownership basis at Panthaky Baug arose, counsel for the complainants, Iqbal Chagla argued that the will of the late Behram Panthaki specified that the land he donated to the BPP was for housing the poor and needy of the community.

"Not a single building has been constructed for the poor and needy,” argued Chagla.

Counsel for the BPP Rafiq Dada countered that if flats in two buildings at Panthaky Baug were not sold on ownership "how will we (raise funds) to construct” new flats for the poor? "We must be able to fetch money. Once I sell them we are going to build many more flats. I can give an assurance we will build.” The AZA wanted a certain number of flats to be given on a rental basis to deserving Parsis/Iranis. The JtCC had stated the BPP trustees had obtained permission to sell the flats fraudulently and had stayed the sale.

Of the 105 flats in A and B buildings around 35 have been sold to Parsis/Iranis and 70 are to be sold/allotted, the Court was informed. Chagla noted the BPP would recover 30 crore rupees from the sale of the flats which cost only eight crore rupees to construct.

The bench conditionally approved the BPP intentions to sell all the flats in buildings A and B and directed the surplus amount be "all (used to house) lower income sections of Parsis.”

The next date for hearing was fixed for March 24, 2009.