Gymkhana says ‘error’ after circular suggests wives of deceased members will lose membership

“Your spouse card will get automatically cancelled on 30th June 2022 in view of the above updation of record therefore you will not be able to use the club facilities from 1st July 2022 on your spouse card. Lady Subscriber card will be issued only after any necessary orders are issued by NCLT [National Company Law Tribunal] in due course,” the circular stated.

“This is not in line. These spouses have been using the club and its facilities for years, some for 40-50 years. Now suddenly if they’re cut off, they’ll be helpless. This must be reviewed,” said a member who did not wish to be named.

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In April this year, the NCLT allowed the central government to take over the management of the prestigious club after a plea was submitted by the Centre citing “violations” of companies law. It had allowed the corporate affairs ministry to nominate 15 persons as directors on the club’s general committee.

Nine members had also written to the chairman and members of the club’s nominated general committee asking that spouses be allowed to use their spouse cards for more time.

“Till appointment of the administrator, by the orders of the NCLT on 15 February 2021, the spouse of a deceased member received the Lady Subscriber card almost instantaneously on application by the surviving spouse. Post the administration of the club by an appointed administrator, this process was suspended. At present, to prevent any inconvenience to the spouse, they were being advised to continue to use their erstwhile issued Spouse Card. They thus continued to enjoy facilities of the club without any break. With the issue of the present circular, the practice of either to continue to use the Spouse Card or the immediate issue of a Lady Subscriber card, will both not be in operation, thus suspending the very use of the club by the surviving spouse,” read their letter.

Nalin Kohli, one of the appointed directors of the club’s general committee, said there is no move to terminate access to the club for the wives of deceased members.

“The club is going through the process of updating records of members through our software. There are errors in records with deceased people being listed as living members. There is no such move to terminate usage of the club by widows. This was an inadvertent logistical error in which message reached people to whom it was not meant to go out to. There is a scheduled general committee meeting on Monday and this will be one of the things that will be discussed,” he said.