Two 144-year-old Goan clubs fight for survival in Mumbai
The Club of St Anthony, Deussua, and the Club of Dandevadcares are trying to stave off fraudulent sale, preserve slice of history
MUMBAI: Two 144-year-old ‘Goan clubs’—essentially dormitories to house Goans temporarily in Mumbai—have rekindled their fight for survival and to preserve a slice of history. The Club of St Anthony, Deussua, and the Club of Dandevadcares, located in a Dockyard Road building since 1880, have been embroiled in court cases for 14 years after the building was allegedly fraudulently sold to a developer. Their latest appeal in the city civil court was admitted on Monday.
A slice of history
The dormitories house Goans from Deussua and Dandevadcares villages who are in the city for work, in mid-transit or on stops in their seafarer jobs. Initially on rent, the clubs purchased the building in the 1970s along with an adjoining building with tenants.
“Back then, they used to be full,” said Anthony Bartello, caretaker of the Club of St Anthony. “Members would keep their belongings in wooden trunks; some would sleep on them and some on the floor. Prayer time was strictly at 8 pm in the altar room, and the gates and common areas would be shut by 10 pm.”
Today, the clubs are no longer in such demand. When HT visited, only two guests of members were present on the ground floor—one was waiting for her husband, who was on a work trip aboard a ship, while the other was undergoing cancer treatment in the city. On the floor above, two siblings, residents of the area whose building was being redeveloped, had been occupying one room for around two years, and a member in another room.
“People no longer need to make a stop in Mumbai on their way to and from Goa anymore. Many members have shifted back to Goa or abroad,” explained Joe D’Cruz, a Dockyard Road resident and honorary member of the clubs ever since he joined their fight.
Together, the clubs have over 1,000 square feet of area and over 1,000 members. For a mere ₹300 per night for those associated with members and even cheaper for members themselves, the dorms or ‘kudds’, as they are also known, offer a very inexpensive option to stay in the den of history.
A legal history
In 2010, the clubs received a rude shock when they attempted to repair the topmost floor, which had begun to leak. “Two of the ten trustees of the clubs had forged a power of attorney (PoA) on behalf of the club and sold it off to a developer for a pittance of ₹6.5 lakh in 2007,” said Savio Lopez, a member of the Club of Dandevadcares. Thus began the legal history of the club, kicking off with the filing of a criminal case against the forgers of the PoA. The club lost the case in 2023.
“We were at the mercy of the state’s public prosecutor, who did not represent the case properly,” said Lopez. “After we exerted some pressure, the state filed an appeal to overturn the judgement, which has now been accepted. To buttress this, we from the club also filed a private appeal, which may or may not be accepted. But the date of the next hearing is in December, prolonging our legal battle,” he added dejectedly.
Alongside, the clubs also individually filed two civil cases, one in 2010 and the other in 2012, against the developer to cancel the conveyance deed and delete his name from the BMC’s records. The next hearing of these is in September.
The issue was mentioned by MLA Altone Dcosta in the Goa assembly on Tuesday. With this, and with Lopez and D’Cruz now on board, the club hopes its fight to preserve a slice of history gains some steam and public support.