Chandigarh Club issue: Member moves High Court over non-holding of club meet

A retired Army officer and permanent voting member of the Chandigarh Club has moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court alleging anomalies in the functioning of its management. Among other things, Anil Kabotra has alleged that the club’s annual general meeting has not been called for more than eight years.

The application has been moved in an ongoing matter concerning the club’s functioning filed against the Chandigarh Administration and other respondents in 2016.

Kabotra submitted that the non-holding of meetings by the club management was contrary to the provisions of the Companies Act. Explanation for not conducting the meeting has not been put forward by the club authorities, he submitted.

“In spite of specific instances of siphoning of the money of the members over the past few years, the club management has blatantly exploited the funds of the club and have also not deposited the lease money due to the government, which has been collected from the members on account of the same. The fact can be highlighted from the annual report prepared by the club, which duly depicts a demand of approximately Rs 2.96 crore as on December 31, 2023, by the Estate Office,” he added.

Kabotra added he wanted to highlight the malpractices within the “club management and high level of corruption/fraud/manipulation of accounts and embezzlement of funds”. “The fact can be highlighted through various instances, which would show how even illegal transactions are undertaken by the club management to grant memberships to people by manipulating the categories under which they have been granted the same,” he submitted.

Kabotra added the entire exercise of inducting unauthorised members was being done at the cusp of the club management elections. “Further, it has also come to light that there is a mass scale manipulation in the accounting of membership fees in the club which has to be thoroughly investigated by way of a forensic audit. At some instances, membership is being given to unknown people at a heavily discounted rate without any justifiable cause or reason and further membership money, i.e. collected from various members is being embezzled out of the club accounts and being utilised for personal gain,” he added.

The plea, yet to come up for hearing, added unauthorised and discounted memberships was being given to people by showing them as relatives of the existing club members, “despite the fact that such new members are not even remotely connected to the existing members”.