BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Saturday quashed the order passed by the Electoral Officer (EO) rejecting the nomination papers of K N Shanth Kumar for the post of President of Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA).
Directing the EO to consider Shanth Kumar as a valid candidate to contest, the court ordered to announce the list of eligible candidates to contest for the post of president by 3 pm today and held the elections as per the schedule fixed by the court.
Justice Suraj Govindaraj pronounced the operative portion of the order which was reserved after hearing the petition filed by Shanth Kumar questioning the rejection of his nomination papers to the post of president of KSCA by the EO on November 24.
The court was also heard the arguments of the KSCA, EO and former cricket players B K Venkatesh Prasad and Kalpana Venkatachar, who are also the contestants for the post of president.
Before reserving the order on Thursday, the video footage showing the scrutiny proceedings undertaken by the EO on November 24 to ascertain the argument made on behalf of Shanth Kumar that the arrears of Rs 200 due from the Sports Club, which has an institution membership with the KSCA and represented by him was already paid when the nomination papers were taken up for scrutiny, and details of payment was informed to the EO.
The KSCA's counsel submitted that it was not prepared the list of members who have not paid the membership fee, and hence the members could not be informed about arrears of payment of membership fee as per the bye-law before the election process commenced. The bye-law has provision for not allowing a member to cast a vote in the election and contest elections in case of any arrears, he submitted.
Meanwhile, the counsel of the EO submitted that the KSCA record did not contain the information about the payment of arrears made on behalf of the Sports Club represented by Shanth Kumar when the scrutiny of nomination papers for the president was taken up. Therefore, the nomination papers of the candidates for the post of president were deferred for want of the necessary records from the KSCA on the candidates, and hence, the scrutiny of nomination papers for other posts was taken up.