Tags:
Journalism of Courage
In what could be a shot in the arm for the Sharad Pawar camp in the BCCI, the Madras High Court today restrained the newly elected team of office-bearers of the cricket board from ‘‘conducting the business of the BCCI’’ and appointed retired Supreme Court judge, Justice S Mohan, as the interim administrator of the country’s cricket body.
The division bench of the Madras High Court allowed Maharashtra Cricket Association chairman, Dyaneshwar Agashe, to file a review petition against the BCCI’s decision not to allow him to vote in the recent election to the president of the cricket board.
Agashe was deprived of his voting right, leading to the defeat of Union Minister Sharad Pawar in the election for the president’s post.
Granting an interim injunction to disallow the new BCCI office-bearers from functioning, the division bench, comprising Justice P D Dinakaran and Justice K Raviraja Pandian, said ‘‘prima facie the undertaking given before this court (that elections will be conducted in accordance with rules and the constitution of the BCCI) has been breached by the BCCI.’’
The bench passed orders on a petition filed by the Netaji Cricket Club in Chennai, seeking to set aside the election of the BCCI’s new office-bearers, and another petition by Dyaneshwar Agashe, who was not allowed to vote at the BCCI’s AGM in Calcutta on September 30.
The counsel for both Netaji Cricket Club and Agashe contended that the court order had been clearly violated during the conduct of the elections. The BCCI counsel T R Rajagopal, however, denied any violation of rules.
However, the judges, allowing both parties to file their respective revision petitions before the High Court, said the BCCI had prima facie violated its undertaking.
‘‘Therefore, we are satisfied that there is a prima facie case for granting an interim injunction,’’ the judges said. Taking note of the facts and circumstances which led to the ‘‘disqualification’’ of Agashe from voting in the BCCI elections, the judges said they were again appointing Justice S Mohan, but this time as an ‘‘Interim Administrator’’.
The court has granted the BCCI one week’s time to file its counter.
It was the same divison bench which had allowed the BCCI to conduct on its own the last month’s election, setting aside a single judge order appointing Justice Mohan as the poll commissioner.
Justice Mohan who flew to Calcutta to preside over the polls, returned without being able to carry out the task. However, the court asked the BCCI to pay the retired Supreme Court judge double the fee (Rs 2 lakhs) fixed by the single judge, plus incidental expenses.
The division bench had also stipulated that the BCCI give an undertaking in court that no candidate should be disqualified for the post of president ‘‘on the ground of residence’’.
And last time too, it was the same Netaji Club, a Chennai-based league team, that had moved the High Court for appointment of a commissioner to conduct the BCCI elections.
