HYDERABAD: In a significant development, a division bench of the Hyderabad High Court on Thursday appointed Justice Anil R Dave, retired judge of Supreme Court, and Justice G V Seethapathy, former judge of High Court, to act as administrators to manage the affairs of Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) in view of forthcoming IPL matches scheduled to begin in the city on April 5. These administrators will oversee effective implementation of the Justice RM Lodha Committee recommendations.
The bench of Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice Shameem Akther was passing this order in a miscellaneous petition filed by the BCCI in a PIL case by M Govind Reddy, cricketer and advocate of the city, seeking to direct the HCA to implement the recommendations of Justice Lodha committee and also to appoint an administrator to look after the affairs of HCA due to non-existence of an elected body to HCA.
The bench, in its order, clarified that the appointment of two retired judges as the committee of administrators may not be understood as an attempt to take over administration of cricket in the state. "The committee of administrators shall hold office only for the duration of the IPL 2017 cricket season and till the Justice R M Lodha committee recommendations are implemented, which task we are confident they will complete within six months. Thereafter the responsibility of managing the affairs of HCA, in accordance with the bye-laws, shall be handed back to the duly elected office bearers", the bench noted.
During the course of hearing, the BCCI had given details of latest tussle and status of affairs of the HCA and requested the court to appoint administrator or observer. It stressed the need of a tripartite agreement to be entered into between the BCCI, the franchisee and the HCA before commencement of the IPL cricket season.
The BCCI said that there was an urgent need to make interim arrangements as two rival groups had claimed to represent the executive committee of the HCA. Any delay in examining this issue would put the IPL matches in jeopardy, it added.
Taking these submissions into consideration, the bench appointed the two administrators who will exercise overall control over the administration of HCA and manage its affairs. The administrators are to be assisted by the elected body of the HCA. The outcome of pending Civil Revision Petition (CRP) and batch cases will decide who the elected committee is, it said.