Minutes of the Board of Trustees Meeting, held on 15.10.2022 at 11 a.m. at Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi

 

The meeting was attended by the following Trustees, presided over by Mr. Vinod Jain:

  1. Mr. Vinod Jain, 2. Mr. Suresh Chand Jain, 3. Mr. Sheoraj Singh, 4. Mr. Rajender Kumar Sharma and 5. Mahi Pal Singh, and
  2. Two invitee members: 1. Mr. Ved Prakash Arya, 2. Mr. Surajdeo Prasad

The following decisions were taken: 

  1. The proposal of the Office-Bearers’ committee to declare as illegal and unauthorised the two receipt books- bearing number 901 to 1000 of the IRI and number 1301 to 1400 of The Radical Humanist – retained by Mr. N.D. Pancholi, was approved unanimously.  Consequently, all the receipts issued by him became illegal and unauthorised.
  2. The proposal of the Office-Bearers’ committee to appoint two Perokars in place of the earlier arrangement, namely Mr. Seoraj Singh and Mr. Suresh Chand Jain,  was approved unanimously;
  3. It was unanimously decided that members should be requested not to raise issues pertaining to the IRI through e-mails etc. and they should be raised at the appropriate forum of the IRI only and that such issues/questions raised through e-mails would not be taken note of nor replied to except in the meetings of the appropriate forum of the IRI.
  4. Mr. N.D. Pancholi has been retaining the manuscripts and other papers of the fifth volume of the ‘Selected Works of M.N. Roy’ for more than 11 years, to be exact since the BoT meeting held at New Delhi on 20-21 August 2011 when he informed the BoT that he had received from West Bengal the manuscript of the Vth  volume contained in six files with typed material running into some 1400 pages, and he has been promising to return them to the IRI in six months every time in the BoT meetings, as he did in the BoT meeting dated 20.4.2022 also, even after Mr. Vinod Jain, Chairman IRI, writing to him to return all the papers to the BoT on 15.10.2022. But he did not turn up in the meeting dated 15.10.2022. The Secretary was unanimously asked to write a reminder to Mr. Pancholi to finally return all the papers to the IRI within 15 days positively.
  5. The financial position of the IRI was reported by Mr. Sheoraj Singh, Treasurer IRI and efforts to improve it through appeal for donations was also reported.
  6. Mr. Sheoraj Singh volunteered to make efforts to get back the money lying in the two accounts of the IRI at Mumbai in the Maharashtra Bank and he was asked unanimously to go ahead.
  7. Proposal regarding the shifting of the IRI office from Mr. Pancholi’s house to Mr. Sheoraj Singh’s residence at 3821/7, Kanhaiya Nagar, Delhi-110035 was also approved by 4 to 1 majority as Mr. Suresh Jain did not agree to it.
  8. Since Dr. Rekha Saraswat has shifted to the U.K. and has neither been attending the meetings of the BoT nor is likely to attend them in future, the proposal to promote and appoint Mr. Sheoraj Singh in her place as a Life Trustee was accepted unanimously and in the vacancy created due to his appointment as Life Trustee, Mr. Ved Prakash Arya was appointed as an Elected Trustee.

A precedent to appoint a new Life Trustee in place of a Life Trustee who is not likely to attend the meetings of the BoT, in this case because she has shifted to a foreign country, exists. Dr. Gauri Bazaz Malik, who had shifted to the US, was replaced by Mr. B.D. Sharma as a Life Trustee by the Board of Trustees. This change was proposed by the then Secretary, IRI Mr. N.D. Pancholi in the Board of Trustees meeting held at Shanti Niketan, West Bengal on 22.4.2007 and was accepted by the Board of Trustees.

The two posts of the Co-opted Trustees, which have been lying vacant, were filled by the unanimous decision to appoint Mr. Surajdeo Prasad from Meerut, and Mr. Bhaskar Sur from West Bengal.

Earlier, Mr. Chandra Shekhar was appointed as a Co-opted Trustee in the BoT meeting dated 20.4.2022 inadvertently under the impression that he was a member of the IRI. However, on scrutiny of the record it was found that his annual membership had lapsed on 28 January 2019 as he had joined as an annual member for two years on 29.1.2017 and he had not renewed his membership before the date of expiry of his membership.

            There are two precedents in the past according to which (1) a person cannot remain a                            

Trustee/Life Trustee/Office-bearer if he is not a regular/valid member of the IRI as was notified in the case of Mr. Niranjan Haldar in a letter written to him by Mr. Pancholi, and (2) a person, whose annual membership has lapsed because of his/her failure to renew it before the date of expiry of membership, cannot renew it just by depositing the membership fee after the expiry of the membership, as happened in the case of Mr. Gautam Thakar, whose renewal fee was not accepted by Mr. N.D. Pancholi, acting as the then Secretary, IRI, because his membership had already lapsed earelier, as per information sent by Mr. Pancholi in his letter to Mr. Thakar.

  1. Accordingly, it was clarified for the information of all concerned that if an annual member does not renew his membership before the expiry of his membership, the membership will automatically lapse on the date of expiry of the membership and that such a membership cannot be renewed or extended merely by depositing the membership fee after the lapse of the membership. In case such a person wishes to renew his membership, he has to submit a fresh membership application to the Secretary IRI along with the requisite membership fee for annual/life membership, as the case may be. After that such applications will be placed before the BoT for the ‘sanction of the Board of Trustees at their discretion’.

As per rule 4 of the Constitution of the IRI, “Any person above the age of 18, who agrees with the aims and objects of the Institute and also its Rules and Regulations, is eligible for membership, provided he applies in the prescribed form, pays the prescribed fee and his application is sanctioned by the Board of Trustees at their discretion.” Hence, there are four conditions to be fulfilled by an applicant – 1. he/she should be above 18 years of age; 2. He/she should agree with the aims and objects of the Institute and also its Rules and Regulations; 3. He/should apply in the prescribed form; and 4. he/she should pay the prescribed fee. The 5th condition is that his/her ‘application is sanctioned by the Board of Trustees’. If any of these conditions are not fulfilled, such a person cannot become/remain a member of the IRI.

  1. Mr. Vinod Jain presented a plan to educate and support young children with the help of Mr. Surajdeo Prasad using social media, films etc. on subjects on which grown up people do not generally speak to them.  Mr. Surajdeo Prasad was also unanimously asked to revive the ‘Indian Renaissance Institute’ group on WhatsApp to spread the ideology of radical humanism through interaction with young people.
  2. The applications of the following persons for membership of the IRI, who fulfilled all the four conditions, were placed before the Board of Trustees and the sanction of the BoT was duely granted unanimously to enroll them as members:
  • Rajesh Sharma For Life Membership
  • Sita Ram Pal For Life Membership
  • Kamal Kumar For Life Membership
  • Neeraj Verma For Life Membership
  • Bhim Singh Shastri For Life Membership
  • Surya Kant Saini For Life Membership
  • Venkat Saini For Life Membership
  • Ghan Shyam Dass For Annual Memhership (2 Years)
  • Ghan Shyam Singh For Annual Memhership (2 Years)
  • Jitender Kumar For Annual Memhership (2 Years)
  • Satender Kumar For Annual Memhership (2 Years)
  • Yash Kumar For Annual Memhership (2 Years)

Mahi Pal Singh

(Secretary, IRI)

Dated: 15.10.2022