Viraf Mehta appointed new Bombay Parsi Punchayet chairman

Taking over from Tirandaz, Viraf Mehta is the youngest chairman of the BPP.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Mehta said, “As per the BPP election scheme, the appointment of the chairman depends on the trustee’s seniority. After Tirandaz, I was the next senior-most trustee of the board. Therefore, when the business of appointing the next chairman was taken up as the item on the agenda for the board meeting on Wednesday, the board unanimously approved my appointment as the new chairman.”

Earlier on Wednesday, in an email to the trustees, Armaity Tirandaz — who was appointed as the Chairman in 2020 — wrote, “I request the first order of business at the next board meeting be to accept my stepping down as chairman and appointing the next seniormost Trustee, Viraf Mehta, as the chairman of BPP.”

The seven trustees of the board are elected by the members of the Parsi community who have registered as voters with the BPP. As per estimates of the board chairman, the BPP has over 30,000 registered voters currently.

Responding to questions, Mehta said that the last poll to elect the trustees had been conducted in May 2022.

The chairman is responsible for preparing agendas and calling for meetings, amongst other duties. In the event of a tie while voting, the chairman is entrusted with the ‘casting vote’.

When the BPP was first established in the 1670s, it was entrusted with the task of protecting the Dongarwadi lands. While philanthropy, including provision of educational and medical aid among other things became a part of the BPP’s agenda, after the 1940s and 1950s, housing emerged as one of the important priorities for the trust.

According to Mehta, the BPP is “the second largest landlord in the city, after the Bombay Port Trust” and currently controls over 4,500 tenements in the city.