Unity Pavilion cancels the TDC meeting and threatens legal action
The TDC (selected by the Residents Assembly) meeting at Kalabhumi on 1st April was originally planned to be held at Unity Pavilion (UP). TDC members had booked the UP more than a month prior and had communicated the time and venue to the community through various channels. Less than a week before the meeting was due to go ahead, the UP team received an email from the AVFO’s ‘ATDC’ with the subject line “program organised by an illegal entity”, claiming that the RA TDC are an “illegal representation” as they are not a GB body gazetted by the GoI. The email stated that since the UP is an Auroville entity, if they went ahead with hosting the event then the UP team “will be liable for prosecution.” Upon receiving this threat of legal action, the UP team contacted the TDC and cancelled their booking.
Note: Under Section 19.3 of the Auroville Foundation Act, the Residents Assembly is directed to “establish such committees as it may consider necessary which shall represent it in relation to the functions to be performed by the Governing Board”. The TDC was selected via the Residents Assembly Selection Process that was held in June 2022, and can therefore not be labelled “illegal”.