Down Memory Lane

In Civil Courts

Apart from the criminal prosecution, I was also subjected to proceedings in civil courts.

First I speak of some suits filed by Sri Aurobindo Society against me and my daughter Manju for rendition of accounts. When Counouma, the Managing Trustee of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, came to know of the harassment caused to Manju by bringing a Commissioner to our house on the basis of exparte Court orders, he sent me a long letter in which he expressed his resentment against it, but the Society paid no heed to it.

Later, as a result of the intervention of Nathmal Himatsingka, a respected well-wisher from Calcutta, Navajata agreed to withdraw these suits for all the accounts were already in their hands. Here also, although the suit against Manju was withdrawn, the suit against me was not, which fact was discovered when the Tinidivanam Court's summons came to me after some months and I had to run to that place. A dear friend of mine, settled at the Ashram, was responsible for it.

Now I come to the suit filed by the State Bank of India for the realisation of its dues from Toujours Mieux, a partnership firm at Auroville consistng of Vincenzo and Jean Peugot, both of them residents of Auroville it was a project for the benefit of Auroville and as for technical reasons Sri Aurobindo Society could not give the guarantee to the State Bank for the monies advanced by it to the firm, I gave the guarantee on behalf of the Society with the knowledge of all concerned.

A time came when Toujours Mieux stopped paying its dues to the Bank and the dues mounted to several lakhs of rupees. Having ceased to be an office-bearer of the Society, I had stopped signing the renewal of the guarantee given by me to the Bank. One day the Bank Manager came to my house with his assistant and auditors and persuaded me to sign the renewal of the guarantee just to satisfy his auditors. When I pointed out to him that it would give him the right to proceed against me in the

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Court for which he had already issued notices to the firm and to me, he solemnly promised that my signature would be a personal help to him and that I would not be involved in any proceedings by the Bank in the Court. Shortly after, a suit was filed by the State Bank impleading me as the guarantor.

I contacted the State Bank and the Society. The Bank said that they acted upon their legal advisor's advice in impleading me and although they knew from the beginning that it was the Society on whose behalf I had acted, they were bound by the legal advice, and so they did not agree to withdraw my name from the court proceedings. They did file their affidavit in the Court saying that I had given them the guarantee on behalf of the Society.

The Society, on the other hand, had assured me that they will own their responsibilty and see to it that I am not in difficulty. But in the court they took the stand that I had no authority to sign on behalf of the Society and that I alone was the guarantor and personally liable. These very people had, in the course of the CBI investigation, affirmed day after day that I was doing everything as authorised by Mother.

Similarly, the Governmental Administrators of Auroville, who had been proclaiming me as responsible for everything done by the Society in the past, took the stand in this matter that I was not authorised by the Society to give the guarantee on its behalf.

It was a very interesting case in the court of the small town of Tindivanam. The lawyers there would often sympathise with me saying that I was stabbed in the back, but that is not the view that the Judge took. He passed a decree against the firm, its partners and myself for a sum of above seven lacs of rupees.

I had a good case to appeal to the High Court at Madras, but I was tired of running to courts and left this matter in the hands of natural justice. The odds were heavy though. The firm had not many assets left. One of the partners had left Auroville and become a rich man, but he was out of India with no intention to return and unaffected by the decree. The other partner who remained at Auroville relied on his foreign nationality and patronage of the Government of India. He and his counsellors wanted to throw the whole burden on me.

One morning I saw a lawyer friend at the sea-beach who had

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contacts with the State Bank Headquarters at Madras. He went there and discussed the matter. They could see that I was let down by friends and also that in truth I had no liability and that I had offered my assets to the Mother long ago. I was given to understand that when the time for execution of the decree would come, I will not be harassed. It was a cold comfort in view of the past experience.

Now, the Administrators of Auroville took the pleasantly surprising and correct view that the Bank will have to first proceed against the firm and its partners and my liability, if any, would come last. Their firm stand in the matter was fruitful. The matter was amicably settled between the Bank and the actual debtors for some reduced amount.

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