Nariman house caretaker files reply

The local caretaker of the Chabad House on Thursday filed a reply to the objection raised by the Chabad Lubavitch Movement to charity commissioner BS Kharade.

The dispute for trusteeship started in 2009 when Shailesh Dalvi, a lawyer and former trustee of the Chabad of India Trust, filed a change report seeking to make Rabbi Joseph Kantor, Moshe Dov Gansborg, and Joel Kurulkar trustees. The constituted authority of grandparents of Moshe Holtzberg — Eliran Russo — challenged the same, stating that a non-Jew cannot make the trustees’ appointments.

The movement’s lawyer P Rustomkhan said grandparents could not appoint new trustees. He stated Moshe was the rightful heir and his grandparents his guardians, but this did not authorise them to take decisions on property matters. The grandparents had recently appointed three new trustees by filing a change report.

Russoo contented that after the parents’ demise; only the grandparents had the right to appoint new trustees. And acting on their behalf, three new trustees were appointed. He called the changing of trustees an illegal act. The argument is likely to start on February 21.