Elderly couple accuses trust of harassing them to leave their home of 50 years

Bai Hirabai Tata Memorial Trust Parsi Colony in Bandra West is managed by Tata Trust

An elderly couple from Bai Hirabai Tata Memorial Trust Parsi Colony in Bandra West are a harrowed lot after they were told to vacate their current residence on the first floor of Jeevanbai building, which has been their home for over five decades. The building is in the middle of a controversy with both sides alleging that the other's allegations are false. The sprawling and quaint society, spread over 1-2 acres with a few hundred residents at a dozen buildings, on Swami Vivekanand Road is decades old.

The zoroastrian octogenarian couple, Shirin and Rustom Irani, said these developments are concerning, but they do not wish to engage in any dispute at their age. Shirin said. "The secretary of our society, Kashmira Kapadia, has been troubling us and is eyeing our house. There are only two tenants left in this building while the next building has already been vacated. The idea is to turn the vacated buildings into ownership flats and sell them for crores. We barely manage our daily lives while our children live in America. Where do we go at this age?"

The notice served to the senior citizens telling them to furnish their passports for rent collection. Pics/Atul Kamble

She added, "They offered to move us to a third-floor flat in the society but we refused given the physical and age-related issues my husband and I face, and that the building does not have a lift." She said the building was going to be repaired many years ago, but that did take off due to lack of funds. Shirin further claimed that Kapadia, secretary of the society, had even refused to collect the rent from them in the past. When asked for a comment, Kapadia said the questions should be directed to her lawyer.

Her lawyer Kersasp Bhot told mid-day, "This is a bogus matter. These are disgruntled tenants who want to put pressure on trustees and have it their own way. They don't wish to vacate or take up the alternative accommodation offered. They want to pick their own accommodation, but how is that going to be possible? She (Shirin) has been in America for so many years, so this resistance from her side is all drama. We have been corresponding with them for the past five years." Burzis Taraporevala, senior advisor to Tata Trusts, said, "Let them allege whatever they want, I am not going to comment on it. What the trust is doing is right. I don't even know which couple you are referring to."

Advocate Daulat Jehangir, representing the Iranis, said, "There were eight tenants in these two buildings. A few years ago, the trustees called the tenants for a meeting and later threatened them because a resident took me along. Their building is in a good shape and needs just basic repairs. The trust hasn't paid for or carried out any repairs in the past 10 years. In fact, waterproofing and other expenses were borne by my client and others. In another meeting in 2019, the tenants were told to approach the trustees directly, but many prefer to have me present there. It is surprising that eminent members of a Parsi trust are behaving like this against people who are not in a position to fight. This is simply the greed of rich Parsis. The trust wants to have ownership flats that can sell at high prices in place of these buildings and relocate these senior citizens to empty flats on a new leave and licence agreement. This is unfair. There's no written proposal for these people, and then the trust threatens them saying there will be eviction proceedings. No settlement has been discussed yet."