NCPA: where to invest

A Bombay High Court ruling in favor of the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) delivered by Justice M. S. Sonak will allow the body to earn substantially more from investments than what the Joint Charity Commissioner (JCC) had allowed, reported the Mumbai Mirror (MM) of October 18, 2017. While appreciating the JCC’s approach "in seeking to protect the interest of the petitioner trust,” Sonak noted nonetheless that "the impugned order warrants interference.”
The sale proceeds of Meherangir, a bungalow previously owned partially by scientist Dr Homi Bhabha and bequeathed to the NCPA will now be invested in higher interest bearing public securities, as compared to the fixed deposits in public sector or cooperative banks that the JCC had deemed fit for the trust. The NCPA had approached the JCC seeking modification of its order by which it had approved the sale of the bungalow to the Godrej family (see "Bhabha bungalow brouhaha,” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, July 7, 2014) and directed where the Rs 372 crore earned should be invested. The JCC had directed that Rs 300 crore should be held in fixed deposits with public sector or cooperative banks and the balance Rs 72 lakh in its savings account.
The Centre’s chairman Khushroo Suntook told Parsiana that NCPA "could approach the Court later on, in case there was some other permitted entity which gave a higher return.”