Mumbai’s Parsi General Hospital rapped for not making deal information public

A member of the Parsi community has approached the charity commissioner complaining that the deal between the BD Petit Parsee General Hospital at Cumballa Hill and a private company is not being made public.

At present, the hospital is only for Parsis, but as per the contract signed, a new hospital will be built on the same premises, which will be open all.

“The trustees have gotten into an agreement, but are not willing to divulge details of the contract. The property is worth more than Rs2000 crore, and here they have given off the management contract for Rs2 crore deposit and Rs4 crore bank guarantee,” said Khushru Zaiwala, lawyer, who approached the charity commissioner’s office.

“Public Trust laws in India prohibit trustees from dealing in secrecy and trustees are bound to give a copy of all trust documents, when asked for by the beneficiaries,” Zaiwala said.

While the deal was finalised in October last year, Bombay Parsi Panchayat (BPP) gave approval for the project in January 2018.

An officer from the charity commissioner’s office, who did not want to be named, confirmed that a notice under section 41(D) of the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950, has been issued against the management committee of the hospital. This section deals with the suspension, dismissal and removal of trustees.

“As of now I haven’t been to the BPP office, so I am not sure if any notice has been issued,” said Yazdi Desai, Chairman, BPP.