Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court’s division bench, led by Acting Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Renuka Yara, on Wednesday, April 30, granted interim relief to the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) by staying a previous order that had barred the association from making administrative or policy decisions involving financial matters, except for essential payments such as staff salaries and routine expenses.
The stay came in response to an appeal filed by the HCA, which challenged the interim order issued by a single judge, Justice CV Bhaskar Reddy, on April 21.
Financial irregularities allegation
That order had been passed after the court heard Daram Guruva Reddy, secretary of the Telangana Cricket Association (TCA), who alleged serious financial irregularities within the HCA.
The single judge’s directive had effectively restricted the HCA’s financial decision-making, allowing only day-to-day expenses and salary payments, and was seen as a response to concerns over mismanagement and unauthorized cheque signings by HCA officials.
During Wednesday’s hearing, HCA counsel D Prakash Reddy argued that the interim relief granted by the single judge was unrelated to the main relief sought in the TCA’s petition, which primarily called for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into alleged irregularities, not an administrative freeze.
The division bench agreed, observing that the interim order appeared to exceed the scope of the original petition. “What was asked in the petition has no correlation with the scope of the interim order passed,” the bench noted, while staying the impugned directions.
Counsel for the TCA, Raja Sripathi Rao, maintained that the single judge had acted within reason, given the “glaring irregularities” cited in court, including claims of unauthorized cheque signings and disputed legitimacy of HCA office-bearers.
With the division bench’s order, the restrictions placed on the HCA’s financial and administrative decision-making have been temporarily lifted.
The matter has been posted for further hearing after the summer vacation, with the next session scheduled for June.
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