MIG - Complaint to Charity Commissioner


From: Mrs. Deepa Jayant Tidke
8, Nandanvan, 4th Road,
TPS – III, Santacruz – East
Mumbai – 400 055

Date: 31st May, 2010

To,
The Charity Commissioner,
Charity Commissioner’s Office,
Worli, Mumbai.

Re.: MIG Cricket Club, Bandra – East, Mumbai
Sub: Complaint re. Fraudulent records and Mismanagement
of the affairs of said Club

Respected Sir,


  1.
    I, Mrs. Deepa Jayant Tidke am a Life member of the MIG Cricket Club (Life Membership Number LT – 1811) since 1997.


  1. I would like to bring to Your Honour’s notice certain specific serious instances of mismanagement of the MIG Cricket Club and fraudulent maintenance of the important statutory records resorted to by the present management of the said club.


  1.
    a) The Managing Committee passed a resolution in its meeting held on 12th December, 2009 for earmarking Rs. 1.75 crs. for acquisition of assets and its up-keep. The said resolution was proposed by Mr. Dilip Gokhale, Hon. Treasurer and seconded by Mr. Siddarth Pardhe.


    1. This subject was transacted as ‘Any Other Matter with Permission of the Chair’.


    1.
      I would like to bring to your notice that Mr. Pardhe had not attended the meeting itself as he was away to attend some public function out of Mumbai.


    1. As the said ‘business’ was transacted with ‘permission of the Chair’, a suitable inquiries may be initiated to ascertain the facts and also whether Mr. G. K. Kulkarni, Chairman of the meeting had consented for passing of such fraudulent resolution and recording of the meeting.


    1.
      Minutes of the said meeting were prepared and drafted by Mr. Sanjeev Patki , Hon. General Secretary of the club. I request Your Honour to take a very serious view of his role in preparing and circulating such fraudulent minutes of the meeting.


    1.
      Interestingly, Mr. Siddharth Pardhe had already tendered his resignation and the subject is pending before the Managing Committee of the Club


    1. I request Your Honour to verify whether said Mr. Pardhe had attended the next Managing Committee meeting and has confirmed minutes of the said meeting.


    1.
      In light of the above I request Your Honour to ascertain authenticity of all the records and minutes of the meetings of the Managing Committee and that of the Board of Trustees.


    1.
      I also request Your Honour to take a very serious cognizance of this specific instance and initiate suitable action against the concerned persons for fraud played on the club.


    1. Your Honour may appreciate that this is not one of a time ‘mistake’ where the entire Managing Committee forgets to realize presence or absence of a member seconding a resolution but a glaring instance of overall mismanagement and highhanded management of affairs of the club.


    1.
      I would also like to bring Your Honour’s notice that as per the provisions of the MIG Cricket Club’s constitution, the subject of the said Resolution was prerogative of the Board of Trustees and passing of such an resolution is nothing but indicative of the malafide intentions to ‘utilize’ the funds of the club.


    1. I fear loss of records or its misplacement before any process in this connection is initiated by Your Honour’s office and request Your Honour, pending its inspection and investigation, to take possession of all the Minute Books of the Club.


    1. In the event of Your Honour being satisfied of the fraudulent maintenance of the most important and critical records, I request Your Honour to issue instructions to initate suitable criminal proceedings against all the concerned persons.


  1. There are a few specific other instances amongst possibly many other unknown to me, clearly indicative of the mismanagement of the affairs of the club. To mention a few:


  1.
    The Managing Committee has allotted/released Ordinary Memberships to 15 persons.


  1.
    The said memberships were said to be released under directions of Dr. Ajit Desai, Trustee of the Board of Trustees of the Club, and in terms of decision of the last Annual general Meeting. I am personally not aware of any such decision taken at the said AGM that I had attended.


  1.
    The said Ordinary memberships are issued by the Managing Committee with total disregard to the rule to the effect that as the said memberships can be issued only when the club memberships are opened for the public.


  1.
    Thus, the memberships were issued highhandedly and with apparent vested interest and without invitation from public.


  1. I understand that most of the Ordinary memberships were given to the relatives of certain persons who are occupying seats on the Board of Public organizations as political appointees.


  1.
    I would like to bring to Your Honour’s notice that Ordinary Memberships is charged at Rs. 4,016 to paid annually as against Rs. 3,00,000 being charged for a Life membership. It works out to annually 1.33% of the cost of a Life membership.


  1.
    I request Your Honour to enquire and ascertain legality and justification for allotment of the said ordinary memberships allotted at the whims of the members of the Managing Committee.


  1.
    In past also the Managing Committee has issued many Ordinary and Term memberships at the whims of its members and were then ratified by the Managing Committee bulldozing any member opposition the same.


  1. I request Your Honour, in the event of being satisfied of the illegal and unjustified issuance of the said ordinary memberships and Term Memberships, to order the Managing Committee of the Club to cancel them and order the Managing Committee to openly offer the same to public with due regards to the procedure to be approved by your office.


  1.
    Another such instance is ratification of large expenses incurred on purchase of assets and civil works.


  1. A civil work (for the lobby renovation) contract valued at Rs. 1.50 crore or so was awarded without prior consent of the Managing Committee and without public invitation tender as the procedure required to be followed up by any public institution.


  1. There was possibly no urgency or any other justification for out-skirting the procedural requirements as the said work was again and again discussed in many Annual General Meetings before.


  1. In absence of any transparency in the business of awarding of the said contract, the MIG Cricket Club stands to lose substantial amounts as competitive bids/offers were avoided.


  1.
    I request Your Honour to take serious cognizance of the same and initiate suitable enquiry into justification for not inviting public offers for the said contract.


  1. In the event of Your Honour being prima facia satisfied of the lack of any plausible justification for the same, the Managing Committee be ordered to suspend the contract and withhold any further payments to him.


  1.
    There many such similar instances including purchase of chairs for an amount of Rs. 1,50,000.


  1.
    All such instances amount to most irregular, unjustified, blatantly haphazard and illegal management of the affairs of the Club causing irreparable damages to the reputation of the Club besides causing huge financial losses.


  1.
    I request Your Honour to conduct suitable investigation in all the major expenses incurred by the Club at least in the last 24 months to ascertain follow-up of laid down procedure viz. prior approval of the Board of Trustees, public invitation of bid/tenders/offer and justification of the ratifications those are granted routinely without any discussion.


  1.
    In the event of Your Honour being satisfied of the irregularities, suitable order for suspension of the Managing Committee or its members responsible for such actions may please be issued.


  1.
    All the General Body Meetings starting with wrongful providing of the agenda and conducting the same in a most highhanded manner has become a norm since the last two years. I had repeatedly brought the various such issues in writing before the Managing Committee. However, none of my letters were replied. I shall be pleased to provide copies of the same before Your Honour as and when ordered. A few instances:


  1.
    Agenda for the last Extra-ordinary General Meeting that was held on 3rd January, 2010 (and the was adjourned and was again held on 7th February, 2010) provided for consideration and approval of the various proposed amendments to the Constitution of the MIG Cricket Club.


  1.
    Draft of the said proposed amendment itself was incomplete and most critical last page/pages were omitted and not circulated amongst the members. In spite of my asking to provide the same and be re-circulated in its complete form, the meetings were conducted bulldozing my objections.


  1.
    I had requested EXPLANATORY STATEMENTS, along with the proposed constitutional amendments, to be provided to the members. Most of the members, as a result, did not understand objectives/motives behind such amendments, i.e. in effect some provisions resulting into authorizing the Managing Committee to dispose of, lease, sell all the assets and properties of the club even by overriding objections of the Board of Trustees.


  1. It is no secrete that most of the Members of the Club do not attend the meeting due to personal reasons and in absence of the explanatory statements they have failed to understand true implications of the various amendments proposed which otherwise would have resulted into much greater attendance for the EGM and wider discussions.


  1. I request Your Honour to ascertain the requirement of providing the explanatory statement along with the proposed constitutional amendments as pre-condition for its consideration before the general Body meeting.


  1. In the event of the same being found required, I request Your Honour to order the Managing Committee to re-convey the Extra-Ordinary General Meeting of the Club to reconsider the proposed amendment in light of the detailed Explanatory Statements to be provided to the members.


  1.
    Another significant instance of highhanded functioning of the Managing Committee with total disregards to the principles of natural justice and norms is appointment of one Mr. Pranav Trassi as Nominated Member of the Managing Committee.


    1. Mr. Pranav Trassi had contested the election for the Managing Committee and lost. Thus, the General Body of the MIG Cricket Club had rejected him as a Member of the Managing Committee.


    1.
      Thus, by his nomination, the Managing Committee had effectively overridden the wish of the General Body of the Club though subordinate to it and has acted unjustifiably and contrary to the principles of natural justice and norms.


    1. I request your Honour to take serious cognizance of the said appointment and ascertain legality of the same.


  1.
    In light of the above facts and considerations, I pray before Your Honour to:


    1.
      Order to take immediate possession of all the Minute Books of the Club, pending its inspection and investigation by your office.


    1. In the event of Your Honour being satisfied of the fraudulent maintenance of the minutes of the meeting of the Managing Committee, I request Your Honour to issue instructions for initiation of suitable criminal proceedings against all the concerned persons.


    1.
      Order the Managing Committee of the Club to cancel the Ordinary and Term Memberships so earlier issued and to openly offer the same to public with due regards to the procedure to be approved by your office.


    1.
      Conduct investigation into all the major expenses incurred by the Club at least during the last 24 months to ascertain whether the laid down procedure viz. prior approval of the Board of Trustees, public invitation of bid/tenders/offer etc. were adhered to and the justification of ratifications those are granted routinely without any discussion.


    1.
      In the event of Your Honour being satisfied of the irregularities, initiate suitable actions including suspension of the Managing Committee or its members responsible for such actions.


    1.
      Take serious cognizance of the nomination of Mr. Pranav Trassi on the Managing Committee of the Club though having earlier rejected by the General Body and ab-initio nullify the said nomination.


    1. Order to the managing Committee to re-convey the Extra-Ordinary General Meeting of the Club to reconsider the proposed amendment in light of the detailed Explanatory Statement to be provided to the members along with the draft of the proposed amendments. and declare the proceedings of the said last Extra-Ordinary General Meetings as NULL AND VOID.


    1.
      In the event Your Honour being prima facia satisfied of the overall mismanagement and fraudulent conduction of the business by the Managing Committee of the Club, disqualify the members of the managing Committee found responsible to and supporting such blatantly illegal fraudulent actions, from contesting any election of the Managing Committee or the Board of Trusteeship in future for a period of the next 6 years or such period as Your Honour may deem fit
AND THAT


    1.
      in the event of any such person being elected in the ensuing Managing Committee elections pending due investigation and orders of Your Honour, the said persons be ordered not to occupy any post or participate in the functioning of the Managing Committee or of the Board of Trustees of the Club and appointment of such persons be kept in abeyance pending completion of the enquiry.

I sincerely request Your Honour to urgently initiate the investigation in the interest of the MIG Cricket Club and order stern actions against the persons found responsible for such blatantly illegal and biased conduction of the business resulting into huge losses and disrepute to the club.

I would like to state that I have taken this initiative to complain against mismanagement of the Club in the interest of the young generation looking at the club with great expectations.

Thanking you,

Yours faithfully,


Mrs. Deepa Jayant Tidke
(Life Membership No. LT – 1811)
Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)