RWITC committee tosses the ball in BMC and state govt. court

By Usman Rangila
June 24, 2004

With Pegasus Resorts & Clubs Pvt. Ltd., dangling a carrot in the form of a non-refundable 10cr-rupee security deposit with the club before the members of the Royal Western India Turf Club Ltd., it eventually turned out to be too good a bait for them to resist. Not surprisingly then 64 per cent of the 443 club members, who took part in the voting exercise conducted at the Extra-Ordinary General Meeting of the RWITC held at Nehru Centre on Tuesday night, voted in favour of the proposal mooted by the current managing committee of the club.

It may be recalled that the RWITC proposes to give about 25.5 acres of land in their possession at the Mahalaxmi racecourse, apart from the land which will be developed into a golf course right in the centre of the racecourse, to Mr Shobit Rajan-headed Pegasus Resorts & Clubs Pvt. Ltd. The ‘conductor’ as the club chose to refer to the company, plans to develop the land for commercial exploitation subject to an approval from the BMC.

RWITC chairman Mr Khushroo N. Dhunjibhoy enlightened the members about the development proposal through an audio-visual presentation which lasted roughly an hour after the meeting started at around 6 p.m. No sooner did the chairman throw open the floor to the members for questions and suggestions, speaker after speaker expressed apprehension about the proposal reaching its logical end. Former RWITC chairman Dr Shashi Chand Jain, Dr Farokh Wadia, Messrs Ashwin B. Mehta, Fali Poncha, Shyam Chainani, A. S. Sidhu and Yug Mohit Chaudhary all raised pertinent questions about the agreement and asked the chairman to look into the legalities of certain clauses contained in the agreement before it is signed by the club. 

Mahalakshmi Race Course, Mumbai, home of the McDowell Indian Derby 

The exact nature of business to be conducted by the ‘conductor’ has been kept under wraps and both the chairman as also Mr Shobit Rajan maintained a discreet silence on this issue. Surprisingly, not a single club member tried to confront the chairman about it. 

Messrs Ram Shroff, Byram Jeejeebhoy and Miss Ameeta Mehra spoke briefly in favour of the proposal. There were unruly scenes witnessed in the auditorium as some members tried to put forth their point about why the proposal should not be allowed to pass. The chairman assured that he would reply all the queries at the end but he was unable to do so probably because members had started leaving the premises after casting their votes.

Several club members, who voted in favour of the proposal, felt that poor public relation exercise led to a lot of muck being hurled at the club and subsequent to which a lot of anti-club coverage appeared in the print media as well as television news channels.

Although the committee has cleared the first hurdle, the acid test for the development proposal will come when the ‘conductor’ submits its plans to the BMC for approval. Sensing the mood among the opponents of this new plan, it is quite evident that the RWITC and Pegasus Club & Resorts Pvt. Ltd are in for a long haul in the court of law. Several lawsuits in the form of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) are expected to be filed in the coming days. 

“I don’t think there is any cause for any litigation in this proposal”, averred Mr Shobit Rajan when asked about the time frame he gives for his company to deal with the imminent litigation. Adding further Mr Rajan said, “We are not doing anything illegal and everything will be done with prior approval from all the concerned authorities yet if anybody has any doubts in his or her mind about the proposed development, we are ready to sit across the table and allay their fears.”

Crowd in front of the grandstand on McDowell Indian Derby day

Mr Dhunjibhoy too was quite confident that the club has taken care of all aspects before deciding to take a plunge in this highly controversial proposal and since the members have endorsed their proposal, the club will go ahead with signing an agreement with Pegasus Resorts & Clubs Pvt Ltd. However, one worry that haunts several club members is that how will the club and the future management face the municipal authorities if they refuse to renew their lease after the current lease expires in year 2013. 

According to senior club members, who refused to be identified for the fear of being branded as villains, the BMC could ask the RWITC to shut shop and relinquish all the land which was given to them for conducting horse racing and it could be deemed that the RWITC has violated the lease agreement. Meanwhile, Western India race horse owners have a reason to rejoice as the stake money for the forthcoming Pune racing season 2004 will be increased by nearly fifty per cent than what was offered last year as promised by the RWITC committee if the proposals are accepted at the EOGM on Tuesday.