COMMITTEE OF AFFAIRS TO OVERSEE HCA

In a significant move, the Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday granted an order entrusting administration of the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) to the Administrators’ Committee headed by Justice Anil R. Dave until normalcy is restored and fresh elections are held.

In a significant move, the Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday granted an order entrusting administration of the Hyderabad Cricket Association to the Committee of Administrators appointed by it comprising Justice Anil R. Dave (retired Judge of the Supreme Court), Justice G. V. Seethapathy (retired Judge of High Court) and former BCCI general manager Professor Ratnakar Shetty until normalcy is restored and fresh elections are held.

A division bench comprising Justice V. Ramasubramanian and Justice J. Uma Devi was disposing of the four interlocutory applications in a PIL by M. Govind Reddy, advocate, seeking implementation of the recommendations of the Justice R. M. Lodha Committee.

The bench noted that “Today, there is no President, as he has been disqualified by the Ombudsman. The Secretary is happy about this portion of the order of the Ombudsman disqualifying the President. But the Secretary is unhappy about the Vice President being conferred with the role of Acting President and his own disqualification.”

The bench pointed out that “the disqualification of the Secretary was set aside by this court on a technical ground and the matter remanded back to the Ombudsman. But today, there is no Ombudsman and hence the Secretary is continuing by default, with no one to adjudicate upon his disqualification.”

The bench also pointed out that “the Secretary is suspended by the Acting President and the Acting President is, in turn, suspended by the Secretary.”

The bench held that “therefore, if the orders passed by the Ombudsman, by the Vice President and by the Secretary are to be treated together as valid, all these posts of President, Vice President and Secretary are now held by persons whose authority is questionable.”

The bench felt that “therefore, the time has come when the functions of the Apex Council are also to be entrusted to the Committee appointed by this Court until normalcy is restored and elections are held afresh.”

HCA CEO shall report to the said Committee, the order read.