A settlement — at last

A joint statement by the petitioners and respondents on the priests ban case states a settlement has been reached between both parties. "The settlement has been arrived at in the larger interests of the community and puts to an end a very long drawn out litigation,” it states. The appeals against the judgment of the division bench of the Bombay High Court delivered on March 11, 2011 has been pending in the Supreme Court (SC) of India for close to four years.
Reached under the guidance of former SC Justice Sujata Manohar who was appointed mediator by the SC in November 2014, the settlement notes that all discussions between the parties during the mediation are "without prejudice,” privileged and inadmissible in any judicial or other proceedings. If, unfortunately, for any reason the matter reverts to the SC, nothing from the settlement can be made use of by either party. Likewise, the terms of the settlement remain under the umbrella of confidentiality until such time as they are accepted by the SC.

The foundation for the terms of the settlement was laid by senior counsel Sriram Panchu who was earlier appointed as mediator by the SC. The parties acknowledge the spirit of give and take which was necessary on both sides to arrive at the settlement, keeping in mind all points of view in the community.
The parties thanked Justice Manohar and Panchu "in bringing about this settlement through the process of mediation.” The settlement was signed by Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) chairman Dinshaw Mehta on behalf of the petitioners, the BPP, and by respondents Jamsheed G. Kanga and Homi R. Khusrokhan.
The almost six-year-old dispute reportedly cost the BPP around three crore rupees (US $ 483,870). With the BPP trusteeship elections due this September, the trustees seeking re-election were under pressure to settle the costly and time consuming dispute.