Zaiwala joined in suit

Khushru Zaiwala, the indefatigable crusader for preventing the sale of Parsi trust properties, has cocked a snook at the venerable Parsi male bastion famous for serving dhansak on Wednesday, the Ripon Club (RC). Succeeding in his revision application to be included as a party to the suit, the near octogenarian lawyer, a member of the Club and a staunch orthodox, has, in the process, also won a battle against the trustees of the N. M. Wadia Charities (NMWC).
The Club is a tenant of NMWC on the third and fourth floors of a heritage building opposite the Fort branch of Bombay University. While the third floor momentarily comes alive on Wednesday afternoons to satiate the appetites of the dhansak craving public, the fourth floor, which has snooker tables and antique armchairs, looks like a morgue. The carpet area of each floor is 7,000 sq ft of extremely valuable commercial space. In 2010, NMWC filed an eviction suit against RC in the Small Causes Court (SCC) at Bombay. After much debate, the parties in the suit decided to file consent terms under which Ripon was to surrender the fourth floor to NMWC on condition the revenue earned from leasing the property would be shared between the trust and RC. On December 19, 2017 members of RC authorized the managing committee to settle the suit.
Zaiwala applied to be joined as a party to the suit to oppose the compromise on the basis that the Club was a public institution and he, as a member, had a right to be heard. The trial court rejected his application. Zaiwala filed a revision application before the appellate bench of the SCC comprising two additional chief judges who, by their order dated November 19, 2022, allowed Zaiwala to be joined as a party to the suit.
The following passages from the order make interesting reading:
"Present applicant came with a case that he as a member of club has a right to be heard and oppose the sale of a club property at a gross undervalue.
"That the old trustees of the Ripon Club retired since the year 2014, the new trustees illegally declared their allegiance to the landlord headed by respondent No. 2, the said Burjor Antia, also a member of the Ripon Club for last many decades and comes daily every afternoon for a siesta at the said Ripon Club.
"The applicant (Zaiwala) further contended that the present trustees of the Ripon Club (who) are close associates of… Antia are brazenly attempting to surrender 50% of the property of the Ripon Club to the landlord headed by Burjor Antia free of cost.”
Citing the judgment of the Supreme Court in Baluram vs PC, the order noted:
"There is no valid reason to decline his prayer to be impleaded as a party to avoid multiplicity of proceedings…”
The order then held that:
"The present applicant being a member of Ripon Club is having right and interest in the property in possession of the Club and from the documents placed on record specifically copy of notice/agenda and draft resolution issued by Ripon Club about expected compromise by filing consent ­terms of relinquishment of part of the suit property in favor of the plaintiff.”
NMWC and Ripon will almost certainly move the Bombay High Court against the order. Zaiwala and his crusader lawyer son will take the battle right up to the Supreme Court, if they lose. The moribund Club is also in the limelight for its refusal to allow full voting rights to its Parsi women members. This matter too may go to court.
The order will embolden the Zaiwalas to intervene to stall further alienation of Parsi trust properties. The Parsi litigation gene is well and alive. Berjis Desai