Kirti Azad moves Delhi HC, seeks fresh election of DDCA, appointment of administrator

The Delhi High Court on Friday issued notice to the Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) on a plea moved by former cricketer Kirti Azad seeking direction for the appointment of an administrator to take over the affairs of the DDCA.

Kirti Azad also sought direction for the electoral roll of the DDCA to be recast on the basis of one family-one vote and thereafter hold fresh elections.

The bench of Justice Rekha Palli on Wednesday sought the response from DDCA, Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) and others and listed the matter for April 18 for further hearing.

However, Advocate Amit Mahajan, standing counsel for Centre Government objected for impleading the Ministry of Corporate Affairs as a party in the matter. Senior Advocate Sandeep Sethi and Advocate T Singhdev appeared for DDCA also opposed the petition on maintainability grounds.

The petitioner Kirti Azad, through petition, sought direction to DDCA to implement a transparent and fair membership system including a transparent waiting list of applicants to stop the ad-hoc system of giving membership. Further, the petition seeks a prayer that only persons who have paid their Club Subscription Fees on time, should be permitted to vote in the elections.

Senior Advocate Vikas Singh appeared for the petitioner submitted that the primary reason for filing the present petition is due to the failure of DDCA to have a proper, transparent and fair membership system. Presently, there are no guidelines/criteria as to how membership is given nor is there a waiting list for members to know where they stand in terms of getting a membership.

Petitioner alleged that the membership process is plagued by ad-hocism in getting fresh membership and is subjected to the whims and caprice of DDCA officials. A vested interest is created by strategically giving membership to selective people and their families, thereby creating a family monopoly.

The petition stated that, to this extent, multiple voters/members of DDCA belong to the same address, such as in the case of Narinder Kumar Batra and CK Khanna who have multiple DDCA members in their families. Narinder Kumar Batra has 17 members in his family and CK Khanna has more than 25 members in his family.

Senior Advocate Vikas Singh appeared for the petitioner also contested DDCA's last election for the president post. He submitted that this is a matter of grave concern as membership is given out for the sole purpose to usurp the elections. This iniquitous process has led to a few people dominating the election because their supporters have multiple members in their families.

This heavily influences the voting pattern in the elections and comes in the way of a free and fair election. As a result, personal and hereditary monopolies are created wherein a selective few continue for many terms and hold disproportionate amounts of power. This discourages outsiders and new entrants who have to wait for indefinite periods to become members.

The plea further stated that the current membership process or the lack thereof is used by DDCA officials to their advantage as they often put up their relatives in various official positions in the association. To this extent, many members have even gotten their staff enrolled as members of DDCA.

Plea added that the result of the corrupt practice in team selection is evident by the fact that the Delhi Team is nowhere in the Indian Cricket scene and the team gets eliminated in the early rounds of every competition of the game including Vijay Merchant, Vinoo Mankad, Cooch Behar, CK Nayudu, Ranji Trophy, Vijay Hazare, Syed Mushtaq Ali, etc. In order to counter this arbitrary membership process, a new membership system providing for a fair method of making members should be incorporated, petition prays.

Further, amongst the existing members, the voting should be restricted to one vote in one family. This will ensure that DDCA posts will not be treated as permanent positions of power and will also do away with the monopoly created in the hands of a few, plea read.

( With inputs from ANI )

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