Grand Gymkhana Goof-up: Govt Director of Gymkhana Orchestrates ‘Fixed-Wrestling’

Grand Gymkhana Goof-up:  Few Government representatives of Delhi Gymkhana Club have themselves indulged in such activities, which were to be investigated by them and the NCLT had appointed them here for that purpose only. The case pertains to Jatinder Pal Singh, accused of taking membership of Gymkhana with fake documents.

Grand Gymkhana Goof-up:  Jatinder Pal Singh became secretary on 15th October 2020 by request letter  to the committee to work free of cost if appointed as secretary but now the same person even after a huge controversy, has written a letter demanding outstanding one months salary of three lakh rupees. Strangely the club has spent over three lakh rupees for legal advice in this matter.

This is what is transpiring

Gymkhana Club has become the sponsor of such fixed-wrestling where the result is already decided. Prior to their suspension by order of the NCLT, the old committee had appointed club member Jatinder Pal Singh as secretary on 15 October 2020. Then Singh had written a letter expressing his gratitude to the then president of the club, DR Soni and said that he would do this work without salary, as he was in the club committee for five years.

Nevertheless, Pathak gave huge salary

Om Pathak, who became third administrator of the club then decided to pay a salary of 2.82 lakh to Jatinder Pal Singh for working as secretary. Then his technical and financial advisors opposed it by citing company law.  The result was that both were forced to resign from their posts. One also made serious allegations against Om Pathak and JP Singh. But the officials of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs kept mum with eyes and ears closed. This was the reason that on August 2, 2021, Pathak ordered Jatinder Pal Singh to be paid salary starting from December 2020 and then he was paid over 33 lakh rupees.

This is what the law says

As per the Companies Act, the Sub-Rules three to five of Section 8 states that no salary or honorarium can be paid to any member of a section 8 company. Company Secretary Sabina Verma had made it clear in 2021 advising Auditor Vipin Aggarwal that government can even impose a fine  of Rs 10 lakh to one crore on the company and Rs 25,000 to Rs 25 lakh can also be imposed on the directors and officials who take  such a decision.

Jatinder still demanding Rs three lakh due

Surprisingly, despite the huge Davis Cup scam, Jatinder Pal Singh has again written a letter to the club demanding them to pay him for month of March and three days in April 2022 when he was removed on NCLT order.  Jatinder Pal Singh has been accused of taking membership of the club with fake documents and destroying his membership related documents also with others. It is surprising that the chairman of the club committee, Malay Sinha, who has the power to investigate and act on such matters, has not even clarified about actions taken in this regard.

Read this also: Inept Government representatives once again encountered embarrassment in the Gymkhana!

Expenditure on legal advice more than salary demand

The manner of functioning of the club committee can be gauged from the fact that the club spent three lakh rupees just for taking legal advice on Jatinder Pal Singh’s demand for payment of the outstanding amount of three lakh rupees. Club members allege that a director of the club committee is lavishing club money for favorite law firms. The auditor had also objected to spending more than one crore rupees in legal cases during annual general body meeting in December 2022.