Minutes of the Board of Trustees of the Indian Renaissance Institute (IRI) held at Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi on

                                                20th April 2022

 

The following members attended the General Membership Meeting:

  1. Dr. Ramesh Awasthi
  2. Sh. N.D. Pancholi
  3. Sh. Vinod Jain
  4. Sh. Sheoraj Singh
  5. Dr. Veeranna Gumma
  6. Sh. Mahi Pal Singh
  7. Sh. Debatrata Pal

The following persons attended the meeting as invitee members:

  1. Suraj Dev Prasad
  2. M. Chandrasekhar
  3. Madan Bharti

Dr. Ramesh Awasthi presided over the GM Meeting.

  1. First of all Mr. Mahi Pal Singh presented the Minutes of the meeting of the Board of Trustees held on 6th February 2021 and the Action Taken Report (ATR) on the decisions of the BoT:
  • In order to raise finances for The Radical Humanist, request letters were sent to the donors as well as to the subscribers and the rates of subscription were also revised.
  • Sheoraj Singh was appointed Publisher and Printer of The Radical Humanist in place of late Sh. Satish Chandra Varma.
  • E-Mails and letters by speed post have been sent to the Manager of The Bank of Maharashtra, Mumbai regarding the transfer of funds of the IRI lying in the accounts there, though no reply has been received from there.
  • Resolution regarding the appointment of Sh. Sheoraj Singh as the Publisher and Printer of The Radical Humanist was submitted to the DCP Licensing/Registrar of Newspapers for necessary action. Necessary approval from the authorities has been received.
  • Regarding the court case of 13 Mohini Road, Dehradun, Sh. Sheoraj Singh was requested to study the case and present his report to the BoT along with Mr. N,D. Pancholi. He has prepared a detailed report on the reasons of our failure to pursue the case effectively which was later presented in this meeting so that an effective strategy for pursuing the case can be devised by the BoT.
  1. None of the tasks undertaken by individual members have been completed. Renaissance Publishers have failed to publish the book which was given to them for publication on the agreed terms. No action was taken earlier by the concerned individual with regard to contacting the Bank of Maharashtra to find out the procedure of getting the money of the IRI lying in two accounts there and no action was reported in the matter of digitization of a book on sample basis undertaken by the same individual voluntarily. So far as the work on the Selected Works of M.N. Roy, Volume V is concerned, the same has also not been completed. Mr. Pancholi reported that some portions of the typed matter still need to be compared with the manuscript. He assured the BoT that he will complete the work in six months and will put all the papers before the BoT in the next six monthly meeting of the BoT.
  2. Regarding the case of 13 Mohini Road, Dehradun, Mr. N.D. Pancholi reported how because of the recusal of two judges on the date when the judgment was to be delivered and later no judge being assigned our case, the delay is being caused. At present, the judge who has been assigned our case is sitting in a double bench with the Chief Justice and therefore our case is not coming up for hearing.

Mr. Sheoraj Singh, recounting the history of our case, told the BoT that the property in question was purchased in 1946 by Justice V.M. Tarkunde and Sh. V.B. Karnik in their own name as Mr. M.N. Roy refused to get the property in his own name. S.N. Puri, the then Secretary, IRI, who was occupying part of the property for residential purposes, refused to vacate it even after the death of Roy in 1954. Vide a Resolution of the BoT on 25.10.1988 he was removed as Secretary, IRI but he still did not give charge nor vacate the property. Hence a Civil Suit No. 266/1988 was filed in the District Court, Dehradun on 17.5.1988 which was decided on 30.3.2001 in our favour and the court directed Mr. Puri to (a) vacate the premises immediately; (b) hand over all the record and belongings of the IRI and Mr. Roy to the IRI; and (c) pay an interim rent of Rs. 1,000/- to the IRI w.e.f. 25.10.1985 till date, the period he had occupied the property illegally. However, he did not obey the orders of the court and filed an appeal in the High Court at Nainital No. 148/2001 on 28.6.2001. What action, if any, was taken by us between 30.3.2001, the date on which the judgment was delivered in our favour, and 28.6.2001, when Mr. S.N. Puri filed the appeal in the High Court, is not known although no stay on the judgment was sought by him nor granted by the H.C. However, he did file an objection against the judgment of the lower court in the District Court on 22.1.2004, which was rejected.

He then filed a Civil Revision Petition No. 3 in 2004 in which stay was granted but this appeal was dismissed on 5.8.2004 on default, which was restored on his application for restoration of the First Appeal on 4.11.2004 in which he was asked to maintain status quo. His Revision Petition was again dismissed in 2008 and he again filed an application against the dismissal on 8.3.2011. During the interim period, no proceedings to execute the decree of the District Court were initiated between 2008 and 8.3.2011 on behalf of the IRI. Later on his appeal was again restored (date unknown), and yet again it was dismissed on default on 29th May 2013. Mr. Virender Puri, the son of Mr. S.N. Puri, who had taken over the case after the death of his father Mr. S.N. Puri and also his own son, Aasim Puri who had been pleading the case after the death of his grandfather Mr. S.N. Puri, filed an appeal after 451 days on 28 October 2014. For 451 days there was no case pending against us and yet no attempt on our part was made to initiate proceedings to get the premises vacated. We approached the District Court at Dehradun and on The District Court passed the eviction order and ordered that the Court’s Amin would accompany our representative on 12 September 2014 to the premises, 13 Mohini Road to get the eviction order executed. Accordingly in pursuance of its order the court sent the Amin on 12th September 2014 with the IRI Secretary, Mr. N.D. Pancholi to get the premises evicted. We could easily have got the eviction order executed for which the Amin had been sent there, and taken possession of the premises. Mr. Virender Puri requested Mr. Pancholi to give him a time of 15 days to evict the property but Mr. Pancholi, instead of 15 days as requested, gave 45 days’ time to Virender Puri to vacate the premises. There is no record of any authorization from the BoT for this action. Mr. Virender Puri utilized this opportunity to file yet another application for restoration of the First Appeal in the High Court on 28 October 2014 on which the court has yet to take a decision – whether to admit his application or not – and since 12 September 2014 we have been waiting for the last eight years for the order of the High Court in the matter. First it was S.N. Puri who had appealed against the judgment of the District Court and then after his death his grandson, Aasim Puri took over. After his death also, the son of S.N. Puri, Virender Puri took over. Since  he too died, it is now his widow who has substituted him and is illegally occupying the property for the last 35 years. On 12 September 2014 we had got the only real and golden opportunity to get the eviction order implemented and get the possession of the premises, but we failed to do so miserably.

Meanwhile, one Mr. Jain has filed an appeal for impleadment in the case claiming that the property belongs to him as it was purchased by his forefathers in 1928, ignoring the fact that it was purchased much later by Justice V.M. Tarkunde and V.B. Karnik in 1946, the fact on which the District Court in Dehradun has already ruled in its judgment of 2001. On his claim also final judgment of the High Court has been pending and is awaited. 

A case bearing No. 05/2001was pending in the District Court at Dehradun regarding the eviction of the property. Mr. Mahi Pal Singh, who has shifted to Dehradun from Delhi, came to know about this pending case. After getting the mobile number of our lawyer there, Mr. S.C. Maurya, he rang him up in February 2022 to know the status of the case. Mr. Maurya informed him that the case had already been dismissed by the District Judge. When asked to tell the reason, the advocate informed him that the judge had suggested that since the First Appeal of S.N. Puri was pending in the High Court and no orders could be passed in the matter till the finalization of the case there, he should file an application for ‘Not Press’ and accordingly he filed application No. 87A-1 and the court dismissed the case allowing us the liberty to file a fresh application after the finalization of the case in the High Court. When Mr. Mahi Pal Singh asked Mr. S.C. Maurya whether he consulted Mr. N.D. Pancholi, who was looking after the case on behalf of the IRI, or anybody else from the IRI, before filing the application, he replied that nobody ever came to Dehradun in connection with the case, nor contacted him telephonically. So whom could he contact, and acted on the advice of the court and filed the application. Mr. Singh, however, got the certified copies of the application and the order of the court from Mr. Maurya on request.

 

Election of the Office Bearers of the Board of Trustees of the Indian Renaissance Institute:

 

The following Office-Bearers of the Board of Trustees of the Indian Renaissance Institute (IRI) were elected unanimously:

  1. Chairman – Sh. Vinod Jain
  2. Vice-Chairmen  (Two) –

Sh. N.D. Pancholi and

Sh. Suresh Chand Jain

  1. Secretary – Sh. Mahi Pal Singh
  2. Treasurer – Sh. Sheoraj Singh

 

The newly constituted Board of Trustees now consists of the following Trustees:

 

Life Trustees:

  1. Mr. Vinod Jain (Chairman)
  2. Dr. Ramesh Awasthi
  3. Mr. N.D. Pancholi (Vice-Chairman)
  4. Mr. Jayanti Patel
  5. Mr. Ajit Bhattacharyya
  6. Mr. S.C. Jain (Vice-Chairman)
  7. Mr. Mahi Pal Singh (Secretary)
  8. Dr. Rekha Saraswat

Elected Trustees (Elected for two years):

  1. Sheoraj Singh (Treasurer)
  2. Rajender Kumar Sharma
  3. Veeranna Gumma
  4. S.K. Nazimuddin
  5. Anjali Chakraborty
  6. Apoorba Dasgupta
  7. Debabrata Pal

Meeting of the Board of Trustees:

Immediately after the election of the Office-Bearers of the newly constituted Board of Trustees of the IRI, the meeting of the new Board of Trustees took place which was presided over by Sh. Vinod Jain.

First of all the Board of Trustees started the process of Co-option of  two members and completed the process in the following manner:

Co-opted Trustees:

  1. M. Chandrasekhar
  2. Shalu Nigam/Sh. Suraj Dev Prasad/ Ms. Malathi Maithri (One of them to be co-opted in that order on availability and willingness to work for the IRI).

 

The Following Resolutions were unanimously passed for operation of bank accounts:

 

            (a)                                           RESOLUTION:

                        “RESOLVED by this meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Indian                                  Renaissance    Institute held on 20th April, 2022 at Gandhi Peace Foundation,                    New Delhi that the Current Account No. 0349201821034 in Canara Bank,                                Maharani Bagh Branch, New Delhi, in the name of ‘The Radical Humanist’,                         the monthly magazine published by the Indian Renaissance Institute, shall be                         operated by any two of the following office bearers of the Indian Renaissance                 Institute:

                                    (1)  Mr. Vinod Jain                                              Chairman

                                    (2)  Mr.Mahi Pal Singh                            Secretary

                                    (3)  Mr. Sheoraj Singh                             Treasurer”

(b)                                           RESOLUTION:

 

                        “RESOLVED by this meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Indian                                  Renaissance Institute held on 20th April, 2022 at Gandhi Peace Foundation,                       New Delhi that the SB Account Nos. 070100005296 and                                                            02070100005297 in UCO Bank, Supreme Court Branch, New Delhi in the                   name of ‘Indian Renaissance Institute’ shall be operated by any two of the                             following office bearers of the Indian Renaissance Institute:

                                    (1)  Mr. Vinod Jain                                Chairman

                                    (2)  Mr. Mahi Pal Singh                         Secretary

                                    (3)  Mr. Sheoraj Singh                           Treasurer”    

 

            (c)                                RESOLUTION:

                        “RESOLVED by this meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Indian                                  Renaissance Institute held on 20th April, 2022at Gandhi Peace                                             Foundation, New Delhi that the following investments in the                                           HDFC Bank, New Delhi i.e.

INVESTMENT       RECEIPT                 DATE OF              DATE OF            INTREST

AMOUNT               NO.                      INVESTMENT        MATURITY            PERIOD

RS.400000.00     CP/1038701(HDFC)     31.10.18                   31.10.25          MONTHLY

RS.300000.00     CP/1038684(HDFC)     31.10.18                   31.10.25          MONTHLY

RS.250000.00     CP/1440142(HDFC)     28.11.21                   28.05.27          MONTHLY

RS.200000.00     DE/1486249(HDFC)    16.04.22                    16.10.27          MONTHLY

RS.600000.00     CP/1458642 (HDFC)    22.01.22                   22.07.27           MONTHLY

in favour of the ‘Indian Renaissance Institute’, shall be operated by either two of the following office bearers:

                                      (1) Chairman:      Mr. Vinod Jain

                                      (2) Secretary:      Mr. Mahi Pal Singh                                               

                                      (3) Treasurer:      Mr. Sheoraj Singh”

 

(d)                                                       RESOLUTION:

                         “RESOLVED by this meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Indian                                 Renaissance Institute held on 20th April, 2022 at Gandhi Peace                                            Foundation, New Delhi that the two Accounts of the Indian

Renaissance Institute in The Bank of Maharashtra, Shram Sadhana Trust Building at Bandra (East), Mumbai – 400051 which are not being operated locally by our Mumbai unit as the same has become defunct and there is no information regarding the members who operated the accounts, be operated by the following office bearers of the IRI:

  (1) Chairman:      Mr. Vinod Jain

                                                  (2) Secretary:      Mr. Mahi Pal Singh                                                                                    (3) Treasurer:      Mr. Sheoraj Singh

The office bearers should approach the Bank Manager to start proceedings to make the two accounts operational by the authorised office bearers.”

The Following Resolutions were also passed unanimously by the Board of trustees:

 

Resolution on responsibility to look after the case of 13 Mohini Road, Dehradun

“It was unanimously resolved that the Committee consisting of the following office bearers will henceforth be responsible for looking after the case pertaining to 13 Mohini Road, Dehradun pending in the High Court at Nainital as well as any other case/cases to be filed in the lower court at Dehradun or in the High Court/Supreme Court, if necessary, and to take any other action which may be necessary, including that of out-of-court settlement and also for reporting every such action to the Board of Trustees in its meetings as and when held:

  1. The Chairman IRI
  2. The Two Vice-Chairmen (the present strength) IRI
  3. The Secretary IRI
  4. The Treasurer IRI”

Revision of the salary of Sh. Pramod Mishra:

“It was unanimously resolved that the salary of Sh. Pramod Mishra is revised to Rs. 15,000/- (Rupees fifteen thousand only) per month.”

Revision of the amount payable to the press for printing of The Radical Humanist:

“It was unanimously resolved to revise the amount payable for printing of The Radical Humanist to Rs. 12,600/- (Rs. Twelve thousand and six hundred only) for printing of 1,000 copies of the magazine per month.”

Re-constitution of the Editorial Board:

“It was unanimously resolved that the following members will constitute the Editorial Board of The Radical Humanist:

  1. Dr. Ramesh Awasthi
  2. Sh. Vinod Jain
  3. Sh. N.D. Pancholi
  4. Ms. Deepavali Sen
  5. Sh. Mahi Pal Singh, Editor (Ex- Officio)”

Resolution on Change of the office of the Printer and Publisher:

“It was unanimously resolved in the meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Indian Renaissance Institute that the office of the Printer and Publisher of The Radical Humanist will henceforth be at:

3821/7, Kanhaiya Nagar, Tri Nagar,

Delhi- 110035.

and that Sh. Sheoraj Singh, the Printer and Publisher of The Radical Humanist, appointed as the Printer and Publisher of The Radical Humanist vide the Bot’s resolution dated 6.2.2021, will initiate action for change of the address in the record of the DCP Licensing/Registrar of Newspapers etc.”

The meeting ended with thanks to the chair.

Mahi Pal Singh

(Secretary, IRI)

Dated: 20.4.2022