Housing deposit loans

After battling in the legal forums for many years the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trustees and the Alert Zoroastrians Association (AZA) arrived at an out of court settlement regarding the formalities for applying for Panthaky Baug ownership flats.

As per the understanding arrived at on December 18 in the Bombay High Court the date for submitting application forms for flats was extended to December 31 and the filled form along with an earnest money deposit of five lakh rupees was to be submitted by January 15.

In a public notice issued by the BPP in the Jam-e-Jamshed of December 20, 2009, BPP chief executive Mehli Colah noted: "To facilitate payment of earnest money deposit of Rs 5 lakhs the trustees have arranged for those applicants who desire to take a loan up to Rs 4 lakhs with Zoroastrian Co-operative Bank Ltd. Such loan shall be for a period of between three to six months and shall carry a rate of interest of approximately 8 percent to 8.5 percent per annum.

Panthaky Baug: loans for ownership flats

"Those unsuccessful applicants who have taken a loan from Zoroastrian Co-operative Bank Ltd… will be reimbursed interest as will be earned by the Parsi Punchayet (from the date of deposit to the date of repayment) who would invest the amount of their earnest money deposit in a schedule or nationalized bank during the interregnum. All applicants who avail of this loan facility for earnest money deposit will have to give a letter of authority to the trustees for refunding the earnest money deposit if unsuccessful directly to the Zoroastrian Co-operative Bank Ltd who will deduct the loan amount together with interest thereon and refund the balance directly to the applicant.”

The AZA in a public notice in the Jamé of December 20, 2009 termed the compromise "another victory” for their efforts. In a separate article in the same issue the AZA noted, "All poor Parsis can now apply to the Zoroastrian Co-operative Bank with merely rupees one lakh and stake their claims for these ownership flats.”

Around 60 flats are to be sold, the proceeds of which will go towards constructing around 300 flats in Panthaky Baug on a leave and license basis as per the consent terms filed in the Bombay High Court earlier this year.