HC slams Mumbai University’s ‘apathy’ in taking steps against siphoning of historical coins from its museum, directs collector, auctioneer to deposit unsold coins

The bench also directed the firm that had allegedly auctioned the said coins, to provide the details through an additional affidavit of those which are still available with it and deposit them in the court, along with the details of persons to whom coins may have been sold.

A division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar was hearing PIL filed in 2014 by Farokh Todywalla, president of Mumbai Coin Society, who claimed through senior advocate Dinyar Madon, that he had sold a part of his coin collection to Mody, the chairman of Dinesh Mody Institute of Numismatics and Archaeology (DMINA), at a low price so that they can be donated to the museum.

Todywalla had alleged that Mody was selling under a series named ‘Vardhaman collection,’ the coins belonging to the museum and those purchased in the name of the museum.

The petitioner had argued that Mody continued to purchase several coins and invoiced them in the museum’s name to avoid 10-15 percent service tax.

Mody, however, had stated that as per donation agreement of May 28, 1993 between him and MU, only 7,000 to 8,000 coins were donated to the museum and the other coins exclusively belonged to him as he had purchased them in his personal capacity between 2009 and 2013.

He had said that Todywalla’s allegations were false and were made out of business rivalry between him and the present auctioneer. The HC had passed an interim order on January 31, 2014, restraining Mody and the auctioneer from putting up for auction any coins belonging to the museum or purchased in its name at any point of time after its establishment. It had pulled up MU for its inaction in November 2016.

Emphasising that concerns raised in the plea have to be viewed ‘seriously,’ the bench on Tuesday noted in the order, “Facts of the case pleaded in the petition reveal as to how apathy on the part of the authorities of Mumbai University has led to siphoning off its own property in the form of numismatic coins, which at one point of time were to be kept in the museum of the University in terms of 1993 agreement. The coins which are supposed to be kept in the museum in safe and secure custody, do not carry with themselves only the value of metal they are made of, rather these coins carry history and culture associated with them As it is, because these coins are articles of antiquity, are sometimes sold on very heavy price.”

The bench added, “Despite acknowledging that coins were lost/siphoned away, nothing concrete has been done for all these years by MU authorities. Once the coins were donated to the university by Mody in terms of agreement, they became property of the MU, which were to be preserved and protected not only for its value in the market but also for its academic value and also as an object of further study/research etc in various branches of history including archaeology.”

The HC accepted a request by Mody’s lawyer to file an additional affidavit by October 22 and directed him and the auctioneer to deposit available coins in the court and posted further hearing to November 13.