NSCI relocates 2025 AGM to Mumbai after legal notice over venue change | File Photo
Mumbai: The National Sports Club of India (NSCI) has decided to hold its annual general meeting (AGM) in Mumbai and not in New Delhi as decided earlier. The earlier decision was to hold the meeting in New Delhi on February 21.
The decision to relocate the venue of the meeting to Mumbai follows a legal notice sent by Gautam Dutta, an advocate member of the club. On January 5, Dutta had sent a legal notice to Pankaj Khandelwal, president, and Sanjay Berry, secretary, pointing out that the decision to hold the meeting in New Delhi was “bad in law as well as in fact” since it undermined the very spirit of the Delhi high court judgment of April 30, 2024. Rule 39 of the club mandates that the AGM be held alternatively in Delhi and Mumbai. Since it was held in Delhi last year it was Mumbai’s turn to hold the meeting in 2025.
Dutta observed that the committee had not provided adequate reason for not holding the meeting in Mumbai. While Mumbai has 18,000 members, Delhi had only 5,000 members.
Dutta said the notice for holding the AGM was bad in law since it failed to specify the resolutions qua the issues and prayers raise in the writ petition on which the members are expected to vote. The petition is the one which Dutta had filed against the registrar of societies and others. The notice convening the meeting does not have any explanatory note or the copy of the MoU dated April 29,2024 or the judgment dated April 30, 2024 passed by the Delhi high court.
Dutta pointed out that the MoU entered into between himself and the Club mandates “that the issues and prayers raised in the writ petition shall be taken up and be placed before the members of the club in the AGM.” The failure to provide relevant information to the members would vitiate the proceedings of the AGM.
On February 3, several members, including Jitendra Bhargava, R.K. Singhi, Suresh Seth, Praful Jain and others, had written to Berry that “the failure to provide relevant information, whether indadvertently or deliberately, which would have enabled members take an informed decision on the issues involved (was) tantamount to concealing information….”
On January 6, Khandelwal directed Berry to hold the AGM in Mumbai at the SVP Stadium on February 23 at 2pm, accepting that the matter raised in the contempt notice sent by Dutta holds grave significance. He also asked the secretary to issue a corrigendum notice with the details of the prayers made in the writ petition and circulate it to the club members. He also directed Berry to add an explanatory note to the AGM notice, which would describe the MoU and Delhi high court’s judgement.
