In a reprieve to the Bombay Parsi Punchayat (BPP), the HC on Friday stayed an order passed by the assistant charity commissioner. The commissioner had directed the punchayat to furnish documents pertaining to the allotment of flats to one of its trustees Noshir Dadrawala.
A bench of Justices D K Deshmukh and N D Deshpande admitted an appeal filed by the Punchayat and held that prima facie the BPP had furnished the information to Dadrawala by having it annexed to a petition in which Dadrawala was a party. Dadrawala had filed an application before the Assistant Charity Commissioner against his fellow trustees, accusing them among other things of not acting for the benefit of the community, that the trustees were not administering the trust properly and that the trustees’ interests had become adverse to the interests of the trust. He has sought that a resolution of No Confidence passed by the trustees against him be set aside, that the trustees be directed to maintain day to day accounts of the trust, that the trustees be directed to obtain the permission of the Charity Commissioner to construct an ownership building at Godrej Baug.
The Charity Commissioner in October rejected all his requests but had directed the Punchayat to give him certain documents pertaining to the allotment of flats by the trustees, with a rider that Dadrawala must not misuse it against the interests of the trust. The Punchayat felt that Dadrawala might act against the interests of the trust as he had displayed a stand contrary to that of the BPP in several other cases.
Advocates Rafiq Dada and Percy Ghandy argued that the Charity Commissioner clearly had no jurisdiction to pass quasi-judicial orders in the matter.
