CHENNAI: Hyderabad Cricket Association's (HCA) Ombudsman on Sunday passed an interim order temporarily disqualifying five members of the Apex Council, including secretary R Vijayanand.
The Ombudsman, Justice Deepak Verma, a retired judge of the Supreme Court, also set aside the resolution passed by these five members last month suspending the duly elected president of the state association, Mohammad Azharuddin.
Apart from the HCA secretary, the other disqualified members are vice-president John Manoj, joint secretary Naresh Sharma, treasurer Surender Agarwal and councillor P Anuradha. The order said that the HCA lodged a complaint against the five office-bearers following which the action was taken. Besides, Azharuddin, the former India skipper, also filed a complaint with the Ombudsman against the show-cause notice issued to him by the five members.
The order, dated July 4, which is in possession of this daily, read, "It is clear from the above, that these members have malafide intentions and do not want smooth functioning of HCA. It is for this reason and reasons mentioned above, I hereby direct that these members are temporarily disqualified from performing their duties as office-bearers of the Apex Council till the time these complaints attain finality. These complaints will finally be decided after conducting an online hearing within 3 weeks from now. The exact date and details of the online hearing shall be provided in due course."
Acting on a separate application filed by Azharuddin challenging the show-cause notice issued to him, Justice Verma said: "Therefore, I deem it appropriate to set aside the resolution (if any) passed by these 5 members in suspending the duly elected President and direct them to refrain from any subsequent actions against the President of HCA, Mohd. Azharuddin. Therefore, I direct that Azharuddin shall continue as President and all complaints against office-bearers shall only be decided by the Ombudsman."
These five members on June 10 had issued a show-cause notice to the HCA president accusing him of violating rules.
"The Apex Council is suspending you and your membership of HCA is being terminated until completion of the inquiry on these complaints," the showcase notice said. Reacting to the show-cause notice, the former India captain had said that the Apex Council has no right to take any action against him.