Ahmedabad election dispute

Barely were five new trustees, eight committee members and two joint secretaries elected to the Ahmedabad Parsi Panchayat (APP) on October 7, 2012, when 15 contestants alleged "a serious injustice done to certain affected candidates.” Among the 15 are several candidates who won the elections.

The five trustees elected are Prof Armaity Davar who polled 543 votes, Mehernosh F. Dastoor (445), Shirin N. Kanga (388), Jahangir P. Anklesaria (382) and Merzban B. Lahewala (336), of whom Davar and Dastoor have resigned. (Davar has reportedly withdrawn her resignation.) Of the eight committee members and two secretaries elected, Ariz Bokdawalla got 563 votes, Dr Rusi Rao (490), Dilshad N. Sooi (405), Minoo Gandhi (398), Parvez Wadia (394), Aspi H. Kapadia (376), Cherag Anklesaria (370), Hoshang Karanjia (327). Bokdawalla, Rao, Wadia and Karanjia have resigned. Both the joint secretaries, Firoze H. Davar (527) and Aspy Unwalla (474), have resigned.

Jahangir Anklesaria, a retired brigadier, is the new APP president. Former president and noted criminal lawyer Kersasp Shethna did not contest the election.

File photo of the 2007 Ahmedabad Parsi Panchayat trusteeship elections

In a joint statement dated October 12, 2012, addressed to the chief election officer, the 15 signatories state: "This is to bring to your notice that the elections for the managing board of the APP held on Sunday, October 7, 2012 were conducted in a highly questionable manner and, we are convinced, resulted in a serious injustice done to certain affected candidates. There are also sufficient causes to believe that a serious fraud was committed on the community.

"This has brought great shame to the APP and, in particular, to all those involved in the conduct and management of the elections. The extent of invalid voting has perhaps never happened before in the history of the APP.

"The reasons for our contention are: violation of clause No. 3 of the APP bye laws, which very clearly states that only those who have attained 21 years of age can vote. This clause has been unknowingly violated by many in this age group. To give you a few examples (without prejudice against any individuals), they are (names of 15 individuals given — editors) and many more, whose names we do not recall.

"Word has also come to us from as yet unverified sources that dummy voting has also taken place. Votes were cast on behalf of members who were not present at the polling booths.

"While many of the below 21 youngsters seem to have cast their votes without knowing about the cited clause No. 3, we have reason to believe that the votes of many of them were actively solicited by some of the candidates, in spite of the fact that they were fully aware of this clause.

"Many of us, whose children cast their votes, accept moral responsibility for the error and recognize that even if a single invalid vote was cast in our favor, it was wrong.

"You will appreciate the fact that when the margins of victory between the last elected candidate and the first non-elected candidate in two of the three categories was less than the number of valid votes cast, the results could very easily have been different, if the invalid votes were not counted.

"In view of the above circumstances, we strongly recommend that the elections held on Sunday, October 7, 2012 be declared null and void and fresh elections be announced within 15 days from today, failing which we will be constrained to take recourse to other remedies, including legal action.

"We, the undersigned, most of whom have won the elections, feel that what is wrong should be corrected, and the only way we see justice being done is by declaring fresh elections. Therefore, those of us who have been elected and have affixed our signatures below, tender our resignations with immediate effect.”

The signatories were Mehernosh Dastoor, Firoze Davar, Porus Karanjawalla, Wadia, Homyar Vakil, Jamshed Dastoor, Firdose Kapadia, Armaity Davar, Soli Unwalla, Rao, Gandhi, Bokdawalla, Karanjia, Cherag Anklesaria and Aspy Unwalla.