HYDERABAD: In a significant ruling, a division bench of the Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday made it clear that any tournaments or test matches conducted by the Hyderabad Cricket Association should be done only under the guidance, control and supervision of the committee appointed earlier by the Court. The committee includes retired Supreme Court Justice Anil R Dave, retired High Court Justice GV Seethapathy and Professor Ratnakar Shetty as its members.
“The chief executive officer of HCA should directly report to the said committee and should act only in accordance with the directives issued by the committee”, the bench noted and made it clear that the committee shall have all the powers of the apex council.
In March last year, the bench appointed the said committee members to act as administrators to manage the affairs of HCA.
The BCCI sought a direction to the administrators committee to oversee and supervise the process of implementation of Justice RM Lodha committee’s recommendations, supervise the affairs of the HCA until they were satisfied that administrative normalcy was restored and the conduct of cricketing activities in the State were smooth to ensure effective participation in the upcoming domestic season 2018-19.
The bench, in its 40-pages order, said that the said committee would continue until further orders. It requested the committee to have a new set of bye-laws prepared for HCA, incorporating all the amendments so far suggested by the Supreme Court and have these amended Bye-laws registered with the Registrar of Societies. The task of shortlisting the players for various tournaments was also entrusted to the committee. But before relying upon the selectors / selection committees to shortlist the candidates, it was open to the committee to check the credentials of the selectors / selection committees, to ensure that none of them was a puppet in the hands of the members of the Apex council now in controversy, the bench noted.
The bench further requested the committee to have the forensic audit that had already commenced, completed within a reasonable time and its conclusions taken to its logical end. As for conducting fresh elections, the committee was empowered to take all such steps as are necessary to hold the elections.
With regard to the claim of the respondents that they would patch up, the bench said that the issues raised by each one of the elected members as against the others relate to serious acts of financial improprieties, conflict of interests, involvement in criminal case and serious irregularities. The only way they can patch up among themselves was by sacrificing the interests of the institution.
“The attempted patch up appears to be more dangerous than the in-fighting that is going on. Hence, we are of the view that there is no alternative except to request the same committee to supervise the affairs of the HCA, both for addressing the immediate needs such as sponsoring players for the tournaments,” the bench observed.