Gymkhana Club secretary ‘being harassed’
Moves National Company Law Appellate Tribunal to stop the club from removing him from post.
The Secretary-cum-chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Delhi Gymkhana Clubhas moved the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) seeking directions to stop the club from removing him from the said post.
In his application, Colonel (Retired) Ashish Khanna has stated that he had been repeatedly warning the successive General Committees (GC) of the “seriousness of the MCA Inspection” in at least 15 such GC meetings and that after taking over as the secretary, he was keen that all “misdeeds” of the club be cleaned up. As per Khanna’s application, he was being targeted because he had tried to hold certain club members accountable for the irregularities that were taking place in the club. “I was keen that all actions and misdeeds that had come to my notice once I took over as Secretary-cum-ceo of the Appellant Club be cleaned up and the persons involved be held accountable. Three such members are the Respondent Nos. 7, 11 and 12 herein, who are facing potential charges in connection with a 2017 new swimming pool episode related to NDMC clearance. The whole project was formerly inquired into by two club constituted investigative committees (i.e. the P.V. Bhide committee and the General SP committee).as per the finding of the General SP committee, Rs10.50 crore has been expended for the pool complex, against a pre-sanction budget of Rs 4.50crore. Respondent No. 12, also being a member of an earlier Works committee and Chairman of the present Works and Housing subcommittee, attempted to convince the committee to go along with a preposterously fraudulent proposal, which involved consciously and deliberately understating the actual expenditure and reporting it to NDMC at a mere Rs 7.50 crore,” Khanna’s application reads.
Speaking to The Sunday Guardian, Lieutenant General (Retired) Dewan Rabindranath Soni, the President of the club, stated that there are some complaints against Khanna due to which he has been issued a show cause notice.“he has been given time to respond to the notice. In the meanwhile, he has gone to NCLAT. The club has not removed him from his post. We have simply asked him to reply to the notice. It is a normal process that is followed when a complaint is received against a member or an official, we issue a notice and give the individual time to respond after which a small committee is set up that decides the outcome,” Soni said.
Making the whole saga revolving around the club more complex, Khanna further stated that the appeal filed by Delhi Gymkhana Club—challenging the 26 June order passed by National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), which had directed the government to appoint two members on the club’s general committee—was filed by the club by “coercing” him to sign the documents and without permitting him to peruse the contents in detail, prior to affixing his signatures in his capacity as the authorised signatory of the Appellant Club on the night of 13 July.
“That this appeal has been filed against all wisdom received by the Members of the General Committee, many of whose members had agreed and accepted that the club, indeed, is guilty of various wrongdoings in the past, and that rather than adopt an antagonistic stance towards the Respondent Ministry, it would be more appropriate to accept the views of Hon’ble NCLT in good spirit and penitently make amends in respect of errors of the past, the responsibility for most of which illegal actions can, in any case, squarely be laid on the shoulders of past GC members,” he stated.
The NCLAT had taken note of the club’s appeal against the NCLT’S order on15 July. Khanna has further claimed that he was “taking proactive steps” so that the wrongdoings of the club can be brought in front of the tribunal.
“In the above background, the Applicant is taking a proactive steps to bring the sordid approach on the part of certain members of the General Committee of the Appellant Club to the attention of this Hon’ble Tribunal forthwith, since the intention of the said members is clear, of removing the Applicant from his present post so as to ensure that their sordid machinations and manipulations of the Appellant Club, especially those that are downright illegal and invite criminal prosecution, are not unearthed for eventual consideration of the Hon’ble NCLT”, Khanna has stated. When reached by The Sunday Guardian, Khanna refused to comment on the issue, but sources close to him alleged that he was being harassed and he was not ready to help in covering up the wrongdoings that were taking place in the club. “The club has spent Rs 1 crore on just five video hearings by two lawyers. Incidentally, both these lawyers are members of the club. Yet, they were engaged to represent the club. Since the club lost the case at NCLT, Khanna has been denied entry to the club and four members of the GC are harassing him as they are upset that Khanna will not support them in covering up irregularities. The case is with the SFIO and those responsible for certain actions are worried and working night and day to prevent the investigation from going further,” a source close to Khanna alleged. The opposing side insists that all such claims (of irregularities) are incorrect and that their conduct will be vindicated.