ANYA LEHRA Vs. GERALD SHIRLEY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Interim Application is not on board. By consent it is taken on board.

(2.) The Interim Application has absolutely no substance. In fact It was first moved before a Division Bench of GS Patel and MG Sewlikar JJ on a praecipe accompanied by a compilation. The allegation was that the some of the Respondents were wrongfully destroying records of the Breach Candy Swimming Bath Trust ("the Trust"?). Mr. Mirza for the Appellants appeared in opposition to that application which was made by on or behalf of Respondents Nos. 1, 2 and 4 by Mr. Jayakar. Even at that time, Mr. Mirza had instructions to make a statement which we noted in our order of 9/6/2022. We pointed out to Mr. Jayakar for the Applicant/Respondents that the kind of order being sought could not be made on a praecipe but would require an Interim Application and that the Appellants would have to be given an opportunity to respond it. After some delay, one of the Respondents, Ms Anya Lehra has filed an Interim Application. The prayers in this Interim Application from pages 28 to 30 read thus:

(3.) Now we must bear in mind that other than speculation there is nothing in the Interim Application to justify these reliefs. There is a reply filed by one Jaenette Anand, Appellant No. 3. It is a focused, compact and entirely satisfactory Affidavit. It points out that during Covid-19 pandemic, the Club was shut in compliance with Government Regulations. When it reopened, the Appellants appointed contractors for maintenance and upkeep. It was then that they found that there were many papers and records that had been badly affected by white ants. It is not as if there was a never a practicing of discarding old and unnecessary records. But knowing of this litigation, which has been festering for a long time, the Trust consulted internal auditors about the various kinds of documents affected and sought advice as to which documents or class of documents needed to be preserved and which ones could be safely destroyed. Legal advice was also sought. There was, after all, a situation of cleanliness; it could hardly be expected that white-ants- affected documents would somehow be preserved. Importantly, the case that documents and records were affected by white ants is not disputed.