Part 74, Issue # 179 – July 29, 2004

Dilip Shah has mailed on July 6, 2004 a notice for an ‘Annual General Meeting’ of the Philatelic Congress of India scheduled for August 8, 2004 at Ahmedabad.

This is however not a properly convened meeting and is called without any authority whatsoever and without consultation of its members. The meeting therefore is illegal.

The law requires that an AGM should be held every year but PCI has never bothered with such niceties. Their suddenly developed fondness for AGM is questionable.

Through the efforts of yours truly to work in accordance with laws of land an AGM was held 2001. That opportunity was used to ratify unauthorized and illegal operation of PCI bank account by Dhirubhai Mehta that was going for years and was exposed by yours truly in 2000. Later Shah and P Company illegally superseded the decisions of the AGM with impunity. It happens only in PCI.

This time also it is an attempt to call a meeting at the convenience of time and place of Dilip Shah and his cronies and its agenda exposes their evil designs.

The first item on Agenda is confirmation of the minutes of the meeting held in Mumbai on July 25, 2002 which are circulated now. In true PCI tradition these minutes are a collection of blatant lies and afterthoughts and not a true record of the proceedings.

The next item is to inform members about court cases against PCI and decide on future course of actions. More interesting will be if they tell the course of actions they have taken so far.

Next on agenda is approval of the accounts for 2002-2003. Logically the accounts for 2003-2004 should also be on agenda. Perhaps they will on the agenda of the next meeting scheduled after two years! Because their publication at this time will drag PCI to deeper into troubles as it will expose the unauthorized huge expenses.

The agenda at No. 4 states – Ratification of the following nominations or appointments: (a) Nomination of Jurors sent for the Bangkok – 2003 and Singapore – 2004 exhibitions. (b) Appointment of National Commissioner for the ESPANA 2004 exhibition. (c) Nomination of Shri Dilip Shah sent for the Bureau Member of the FIP Commission for the fight against Forgeries, as per the advise of FIAP(!).

This appears to be a mischievous attempt to ratify some, but not ALL appointments illegally made in last two years and also appoint persons as jury, commissioners, delegates, and bureau members of FIP Commissions for next two years.

The non-inclusion of illegal appointments that they do not even wish to ratify is part of a premeditated plan to keep members in the dark about the truths in these matters. This is in the PCI tradition to fool all the members all the time.

The Agenda at No. 5 states – Appointment of National Commissioners and nomination of Jury for the following International Exhibitions: (a) OLYMPHILEX – 2004 – Athens, Aug. 2004. (b) PACIFIC EXPLORER 2005 (Specialised International) – Sydney, April 21 to 24, 2005. (c) TAIPEI – 2005 (Asian International) – Taipei, August 19 to 24 2005. (d) WASHINGTON 2006 – Washington, May 27 to June 3, 2006.

Believe it or not, they wish to appoint, on the Sunday - August 8, 2004, national commissioner for OLYMPHILEX 2004 that opens at Athens on August 12, 2004!!! Conveniently the dates of the exhibition are omitted from the agenda.

They want the members to believe that they still have to appoint national commissioners while the truth is they already have appointed at least 2 out of other 3 exhibitions.

Item No. 6 on the agenda states – Appointment of the PCI Delegates and Observers to the FIP Congress in Singapore.

Once again they want approval for something that they have already done.

The agenda illegally incorporates the items hitherto included only in the governing council meetings such as approval of new membership applications.

All this exposes their nefarious designs that they actually do not have any need of elections, or governing council at all.

Shah has been a PCI Secretary General for 18 years and plans to illegally continue to be one for his life by illegally convening meetings such as this every two years!!!

Shah deserves to be sacked immediately in a democratic process as he is being investigated by the country’s premier investigating agency CBI for smuggling of antiquities and has a case registered against him.

It is pertinent to mention here that the complaints of criminal misdemeanor are also filed with the appropriate authorities against M G Pittie, S Sahoo, A R SInghee, B K Sinha and others.

The notice of the meeting is signed by Shah as ‘Secretary General’ while on accompanying accounts for 2002-2003 he signs as ‘President’, while in fact he is neither!

Shah has on several occasions with various government authorities submitted that there is no governing council of PCI since August 25, 2003 and the term of the last governing council was over on that day. However in the tradition of PCI Officers acting as if above the laws of the land, he continues to function as Secretary General.

The Treasurer and Joint Treasurer from the last Governing Council also illegally occupy their respective offices and work unabated and unashamed.

Shah was ‘President-Elect’ till August 25, 2002 and according to the rules & regulations of the PCI was to automatically take over as the President in the succeeding meeting after the elections where Sahoo would have become the immediate past president and would have continued in the governing council for the next two years. However no meeting of PCI general body took place since the last 2 years but this has not deterred Shah from falsely functioning as the president.

Today Shah is President and Secretary General of PCI. He has also not vacated the office of the President-Elect and will on august 8, 2004 will occupy the office of Immediate Past President as well. Now if he takes over the office of Treasurer, Joint Treasurer, and Vice Presidents, there will be no need for any one else or holding elections ever.

This is the time for all members of PCI who respect the laws of the land to assert their rights and take Shah and similar such persons to the task. The need of the hour is that all PCI members must support the truth and the right cause.