The human toll

There is not much seating capacity outside the Bombay Charity Commi-ssioner’s (CC) hearing rooms. The few chairs are occupied by the litigants while the rest have to sit on some absent CC staff member’s chair or stand in the corridors or wherever they manage to find space. On June 27, 2016 when the Assistant Charity Commissioner (ACC) was to hear the issue of whether Muncherji Cama’s resignation from the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) last year was valid or not, the BPP chairman Yazdi Desai, his wife Anahita and former BPP chairman Dinshaw Mehta were standing most of the afternoon as were the lawyers.

The ACC called in the parties 10 minutes after the scheduled time of 12.30 p.m. but as one of the lawyers was delayed with some matter in the Bombay High Court, the hearings could not begin. The lawyer appeared 30 minutes later and at 1.20 p.m. the matter started when the counsel for the BPP filed an application claiming "serious, improper and unwarranted act on part of...Dinshaw Mehta (who) purportedly and without paying heed to the pending litigation...has published an article in the newspaper called Jam-e-Jamshed dated 19th June, 2016."

Cama’s lawyer then stated he wished to record his objections to the documents put on record by the BPP at a previous hearing. The ACC then adjourned the matter to 2.30 p.m., after the lunch break.

There being a hartal (strike) in the Worli area due to the demolition of Ambedkar’s Dadar office two days earlier, all the shops and restaurants in the vicinity were closed. The CC building has no canteen. When the food-deprived gathering reconvened, the ACC asked for the objections to the documents to be submitted in writing. Cama’s lawyer sat and diligently wrote out his misgivings.

In the meanwhile the rest were requested to wait outside while the ACC dealt with other pending matters. This time a few chairs were unoccupied so people could sit.

Once the objections were submitted, the ACC adjourned the matter to July 12 and the main purpose of the hearing to cross-examine Yazdi was set aside. The date prior, the chairman did not make an appearance and was fined Rs 500.

Cama does not attend the hearings as it is Mehta who is challenging the acceptance of the resignation by four trustees of the previous board. His letter of resignation dated June 12, 2015 was addressed "To The Trustees," while clause 52 of the BPP election scheme (the last one in the scheme) states "a trustee desirous of resigning from office shall address his letter of resignation to the Chairman." The clause does not state what happens if the chair is held by a woman! Only when the chairperson resigns, does he or she address the letter to the trustees.

Cama’s seven-year term expires in July 2018. His opponents will no doubt seek to extend the litigation untill that time. When the BPP lawyer filed the objection application the ACC inquired whether he was trying to "delay" the proceedings. He replied in the negative.

One of Mehta’s well-wishers who was present to extend moral support to him, narrated a litany of woes on how as a BPP housing occupant she was being harassed by some of the trustees. She even thoughtfully bought for the reporter a packet of biscuits and a bottle of water from a nearby shop whose shutter was half down. The next day the trustees in turn pointed out she was a troublesome person against whom several police complaints had been made. As journalists we make a living by listening to people’s woes and achievements. Time, during legal proceedings, is seldom totally wasted.

The Valsad Parsi Anjuman is also locked in litigation in the Supreme Court over denying admission to its fire temple and Doongerwadi to Parsi women married to non-Parsis. When the case was before the Gujarat High Court in Ahmedabad, Parsiana made close to a dozen day trips to that state capital. It was an opportunity to catch up with local news and interact with friends and acquaintances and also make new ones. People in Gujarat (and elsewhere) are very hospitable. TheValsad trustees and office bearers would make the trip to Ahmedabad for the hearings and when the matter shifted to Delhi, they were present there. The case has been pending for almost three years in the apex court without a hearing on admissibility. Parsiana wisely refrained from making the expensive trips back and forth to Delhi because we never knew if there would be a hearing or not. No date has been set for the next hearing.

When we wrote about the BPP trustees barring two priests from performing religious ceremonies at Doongerwadi and two agiaries, an individual wrote to the trustees asking them to reconsider their decision. When the then seven trustees remained adamant, the matter went to court. Six years later, after countless court dates and mediation hearings, the then trustees who bankrupted the BPP compromised and curtailed their powers to interfere in religious matters. The objective of serving the beneficiaries of a trust suffers if resources are drained in court cases.

In the Small Causes Court where Rent Act disputes are heard, one sees tenants, occupants, licensees taking leave from work to attend and struggling to make payments to their lawyers. Cases drag on from one court to another and take decades to resolve. Often the original plaintiffs, the defendants and even their lawyers expire before the matter is finally decided.

The general public largely focusses on the monetary cost of litigation and the delays. But the endless hours spent in locating documents, meeting with lawyers, waiting in court is often overlooked. Aside from time and money lost, there is the human toll that litigation entails, not only on the warring parties but also their families and friends. Reputations are made and lost. Fortunes are frittered away. Health problems abound.

Maoist sympathiser Kobad Ghan-dy has been languishing in jail for over six years. This June a trial court acquitted him of all terrorism charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. He still faces a barrage of similar cases elsewhere in India. From Tihar he has been transferred to a jail in Telangana. His health has deteriorated. In Tihar he was confined in a high risk ward with dangerous criminals. Keeping one’s sanity in such surroundings is challenging. Whatever the merits of the charges against him and his defence, the denial of bail amounts to severe deprivation. On the one hand we read of convicted killers being given parole after a year or two and then disappearing instead of reporting back to jail and on the other hand we have undertrials, many of them impoverished, being incarcerated for years on end, even for petty crimes.

Reforming the judicial system is a Herculean, time consuming and contentious task. Until that is done it is far more prudent for the warring factions to sit across the table and compromise. No one party gets all they want but the monetary and human cost of litigation can be minimized.