HC recalls order listing 90-year-old’s case in 2046, posts hearing on July 15

Calling the suit an ego battle that could easily be put to rest through an apology, a single-judge bench of justice Jitendra Jain had on Tuesday deferred proceedings by two decades

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday recalled its earlier order adjourning a defamation suit filed by a 90-year-old Malabar Hill resident and her daughter to 2046, and posted the matter for hearing on July 15.

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Calling the suit an ego battle that could easily be put to rest through an apology, a single-judge bench of justice Jitendra Jain had on Tuesday deferred proceedings by two decades.

“List this matter after 2046. At any cost, this matter should not be given priority on the ground that the petitioners are senior citizens or super senior citizens. It is expressly made clear that this matter will not be taken up for hearing before 2046,” the court had said.

The court was hearing a defamation suit filed by Tariniben Desai, 90, a prominent Gujarati writer and a recipient of awards from the Sahitya Akademi in Gujarat and Maharashtra, and her daughter Dhvani Desai, 57, an animation film-maker, against five members of the managing committee of Shyam Co-operative Housing Society, who served until June 2016 and two others who were managing committee members from 2006-07 to 2009-10.

The housing society in Malabar Hill has 292 members and comprises five buildings called Shyam Niwas and three called Nanak Niwas, in one of which the Desais live. The mother-daughter duo had claimed damages of ₹20 crore from the former members of the housing society’s managing committee for loss of reputation and mental distress they had caused by wrongly calling them ‘defaulters’.

They had claimed that since they had questioned the inflated expenses for society repairs, they had to endure harassment for eight years before they filed the suit in 2017. They said that the society, in annual general body meetings, had blamed them for their rising legal expenses and also called them “defaulter members” for not paying their maintenance bills.

The Desais said they had always paid their maintenance bills. However, in 2009, after the repair expenses for Nanak Niwas Block 3 allegedly escalated from ₹50-60 lakh to ₹1 crore, they filed a complaint with the deputy registrar of cooperative societies after which an inspection was carried out. The civil defamation suit filed by the Desais stated that the inspection also found serious mismanagement and misappropriation of funds. They also said that their maintenance dues of ₹10.34 lakh had been cancelled by an authorised officer of the cooperatives department in 2015.

On Wednesday, advocates Swaraj Jadhav and Sanskruti Yagnik, appearing for the Desais, mentioned the matter to be taken up consideration. Following this, the bench set aside the 2046 date and directed the case be listed for hearing on July 15.