Srinagar: Permission has been sought by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) from the Jammu and Kashmir High Court for appointment of an ad-hoc committee to look after the affairs, management and administration of J&K Cricket Association (JKCA).
The national cricketing body while seeking directions from the court in this regard termed the current management of JKCA as a “failure”, and questioned its work with regard to implementation of court orders.
Senior counsel Sunil Sethi appearing for the BCCI submitted before the court that the current administrators of JKCA, with a CEO appointed by the court, were obliged under law to hold free and fair elections of the JKCA and to amend the constitution of JKCA in conformity with the Lodha Panel recommendations within two months as was directed by the court.
The counsel stated that even after more than two and a half years, neither the constitution has been amended nor elections of the JKCA been held.
The counsel said that the administrators as also the CEO were running the affairs of JKCA in contravention of the spirit of the directions given in the division bench judgment of this court and of the orders of Supreme Court.
Senior advocate Mohsin Qadri appearing on behalf of various J&K cricket clubs informed the court that the administrators and the CEO had amended the JKCA rules in contravention of the mandate of law given by the court and also against the Lodha Panel recommendations which were approved by the Supreme Court.
Qadri further added that the administrators and the CEO withdrew the memberships as well as voting rights of the cricketing clubs who were members of JKCA.
The Division Bench of Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey and Justice Puneet Gupta after hearing the parties kept the matter for further proceedings on Monday in order to settle the issues related to the affairs of the association and the inter-disputes of the clubs.
Earlier, a bunch of pleas were filed before the court by two factions, one headed by Dr Farooq Abdullah and another led by Imran Raza Ansari, from 2015 claiming themselves to be the office bearers of JKCA. These pleas, the BCCI said, had hampered the object of promoting cricket activities in the association.
The Division Bench of the High Court while deciding the pleas had finally on October 2017 appointed an ombudsman for settlement of disputes among the clubs and with the JKCA, and apart from appointment of two administrators – C K Prasad, retired Supreme Court judge, and Syed Rafat Alam, the then Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh – had also appointed Ashiq Hussain Bukhari (retired IPS) as Chief Executive Officer for running the affairs of JKCA till rules were amended and elections held.

NUSRAT SIDIQ