Bombay High Court to review ‘age factor’ in BPP election scheme

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The Bombay High Court will be reviewing the Scheme for Election of Trustees of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet's (BPP), where the proposed amendments include capping the age limit of members who contest the election. The other proposed amendments are bringing down the term of member trustees from seven to five years, and deciding a term limit for holding trusteeship from 21 to 10 years. A majority have already expressed a desire to use EVMs and VVPAT system for casting and counting of votes during its upcoming election of trustees, to be tentatively held in March.

An advocate, on condition of anonymity, said, "An essential clause [that should be reviewed] is why those under the age of 30 or 35 are not being allowed to contest. There are so many young people who are good enough to contest. Reducing the cap on age limit must be done, as it allows for the youth to also get involved. There are so many educated people from the Parsi community, we need them to contest."

Kersi Randeria, a BPP trustee clarified that anyone of any age can contest. "One proposal put up was that you have to be less than 75 years and by the time your term ends, you are 80. Putting an upper limit on age would be a sensible thing to do." Advocate Yatin Malvankar representing Adil Irani, one of the petitioners, said, "The next hearing will be on February 22 wherein an amended scheme will be presented to a chamber judge."