Hyderabad: The Supreme Court of India appointed Justice Nageswar Rao to head a single-member committee to look into the pending polls of the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA), on Tuesday.
“We suggest that the elections be conducted under the aegis of Justice L Nageswara Rao, he is from Hyderabad he can fix the electoral college,” requested Senior Advocate Siddhartha Dave.
Justice Rao had earlier supervised the process of finalising an electoral college for the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and is still overseeing the IOA’s draft constitution.
The Supreme Court was hearing a case in which the HCA had appointed former SC judge Deepak Verma as their ethics officer which led to state cricket clubs challenging Verma’s appointment before the Telangana High Court.
The Supreme Court in an order said that Justice Nageswara Rao will head the supervisory committee and sort out the pending polls issue of the Hyderabad Cricket Association. “The committee will cease to exist on March 2,” said the court.
“The expenses will be borne by the Association. If the learned judge needs some directions from this Court, the matter can be placed before us for a limited purpose,” said the apex court.
The court said that the impasse must come to an end and fair elections need to be held. They directed that the recordings of the pleadings in the case be placed before the Justice and suggested that he take assistance as needed.
“Every sports association cannot be monitored like this by us,” said Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul.
HCA president, Mohammed Azharuddin faced a revolt with the majority of members deciding to conduct elections to elect new office-bearers even as the former Indian cricket captain remained defiant.
In a report from last month, a supervisory committee appointed by the Supreme Court of India to monitor the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) submitted its latest findings to the apex court on Tuesday.
The report revealed startling facts on HCA memberships.
“No record of memberships exists. There is no documentary evidence on how the electoral roll of HCA was drawn in 2019 by the election officer,” said the report.
A few HCA members own 7-8 clubs. “These members are responsible for ‘subverting the democracy’ by using their votes as well as manipulating the selection procedure for state teams,” it said.
“They blackmail all institutionalized processes provided by Justice Lodha Committee reforms incorporated in the by-laws in state team selection procedure, buying and selling of teams,” the report said.
“They also indulge in leasing teams that are under their control to brokers for lakhs of rupees. These brokers loot families of budding cricketers who dream of playing league matches hosted by HCA. These matches form the basis for selection to state teams,” it said.
HCA, which is recognised by the BCCI as the sole representative of cricket in Telangana, contains an imbalanced democracy. “This is because a majority of Hyderabad-based clubs form the electoral college of HCA while the remaining districts of Telangana do not have an equal say. The committee is working on a suitable model of memberships that are equitable,” the report stated.
Moreover, the names of member clubs change frequently, raising suspicion of clubs being sold for crores of rupees, the report points out.
“There have been complaints from the state government alleging large-scale frauds in HCA memberships, lack of intent to provide equal membership rights to districts and has also highlighted the disappearance of hundreds of clubs that existed 35 years ago. There is no record of how these clubs disappeared and who took them over,” the report stated.
The report confirms through sources that membership frauds have existed since the 90s and have increased over time. It mentions the chairman of the committee was hesitant to sign the report, for reasons unknown.
“Normally, frauds in membership have to be looked into by the Ombudsman. Some beneficiaries appointed the Ombudsman of their choice by using their majority and made sure complaints regarding fraudulent memberships, multiple clubs etc never see the light of the day,” the report said.
Finally, the report suggested a decentralised structure for HCA with all districts and municipal corporations as members in order to stop the monopoly of private clubs.
