The Federation of Film Societies of India was founded in 1959 with Satyajit Ray as its President and he adorned that chair till his death. Thereafter, dignitaries like Mrinal Sen, and Shyam Benegal who occupied that seat ensured that the dignity of the high office was upheld. But now, Sri. Gautam Kaul is the FFSI President and this petition is against his despotic ways and also a plea to him to desist from demeaning the high office he holds.

The Case

 The Biennial General Meeting of the Kerala Sub Region of F F S I was held in July 2014 violating the Rules & Regulations and the By-laws of the Federation, and the blatant rigging of the election process. Immediately after the meeting, a complaint was lodged by this petitioner, as the President of the Sarga Film Society Payyannur, Keralam, India,with the President of FFSI. For almost a year the Central Office of the FFSI sat on this complaint. My insistence eventually compelled the Central Office to look into it. But it still chose to dissuade the petitioner asking him to present his complaint before the Central Executive Committee(the accused office is also a part of it) which met at Nagpur in March 2015. The petitioner refused to be there unless it is a preliminary enquiry by an impartial authority. Further, it would have been self-defeating to seek justice before a body that included the fraudulently elected representatives of the Kerala Sub Region. The CEC Meeting, however, decided to conduct an enquiry on the complaint with Sri. Premendra Majumder, General Secretary of FFSI and Sri. Sankar Pal, Regional Secretary of the Eastern Region as members of the enquiry committee. Once again things were sought to be made more difficult for the petitioner by asking the petitioner, who resides in Kerala, to fly to Kolkata to appear before the enquiry committee. The petitioner requested the Committee to hold the enquiry in Kerala as the complainant, the accused office, the place of occurrence,witnesses and the books and records to be examined as evidences were in Kerala. In June 2015, these two men came to Thiruvananthapuram. (That they arrived to enjoy the hospitality of the accused was revealed to the petitioner only later, through Facebook pictures of the get-together.See my account- www. facebook.com / PT Ramakrishnan)  

  The complainant and Sri V K Joseph, (as witness) 

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Ramamoorthy Mani <ramamoorthy.mani@gmail.com>
Jun 6,2015
 to Premendra, FFSI, B, FFSI, FFSI, FFSI, me, FFSI, Kiran, Gautam, Anil, Amitava, A, FFSI, R, Premendra, Sudhir, Sankar, Aruni, Sudhir, V, Sandeep, C
Dear,
Greetings.Thanks for the mail.I would like to observe the following from your mail.The inquiry is against KSR on a complaint lodged by Sarga. How you can mention in your mail inviting  Mr V K Joseph in your proceedings as "witness"  and ask him to give " evidence" ? (para 3 of your mail)
Regds
Mani  

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were summoned for an enquiry the day after the enquiry committee members bonded with the accused over meals. The petitioner reached Thiruvananthapuram after a 500-KM long 12-hour journey. But to his disbelief, there was neither an enquiry nor an examination of witnesses, defendants or documents. Instead, the petitioner was told that it would be a ‘friendly’ conversation. Months later, the enquiry committee submitted a report to the FFSI President stating that they had conducted a detailed enquiry observing all procedures and formalities. The very next day the President passed an order dismissing the complaint. (A copy of the complaint and ensuing correspondence between the complainant and the Central Office along with the Enquiry report and Final order of Sri. Gautam Kaul, President of FFSI is put in sargafs.blogspot.com. Those who wish to scrupulously go through the 63 pages are welcome)

 The complainant submitted a review petition to the President stating that the enquiry report was not true to facts and the decision of the President was not objective. But the president did not deem it fit even for an acknowledgement. The petitioner was not even sent a hard copy of the order though it was stated to do so, in that order. When repeated reminders, too, fell on deaf ears petitioner tried to bring the issue to the notice of the highest body of the FFSI, the Central Council. The petitioner had requested the Central Office to provide the contact details of the CC members and even filed an  application under Right to Information Act. But all efforts went unheeded. The President and the General Secretary and other office bearers of the FFSI are so cosy in their positions that they have adopted a devil-may-care attitude. They seem to enjoy a dangerous impunity, which mocks at the very idea of democratic governance. The President’s order is so callous that it asks the complainant to approach a court of judicature, a bully’s crude reminder that no justice can be expected from his august office. But this challenge, it has to be said, masks the cunning of the culprit. Even while daring the petitioner to go to court, the order says that legal relief has to be sought from the High Court of Kolkata, a place unfamiliar to the petitioner.

 This petition is an appeal to the Central Council of the Federation of Film Societies of India to act as the appellate authority in this complaint and reverse the erroneous order of the President . Failing which, the integrity of a half-century old democratic cultural organization will be jeopardized.