The Calcutta high court on Friday stayed the Board of Control for Cricket in India's suspension on Jagmohan Dalmiya and said the former BCCI chief is free to contest the upcoming Cricket Association of Bengal polls.
Upholding Dalmiya's application against the suspension imposed by the Sharad Pawar-led regime in December 2006, Justice Indira Banerjee observed that the rule under which he was suspended was not registered and, as such, it was illegal.
Following the ruling, Dalmiya is now free to contest the July 28 elections of the Cricket Association of Bengal.
Justice Banerjee, in her order, said there is no bar on Dalmiya contesting any elections of the BCCI or CAB.
The deadline for filing of nominations for the CAB elections expires at 1600 hrs on Firday.
The BCCI had suspended Dalmiya alleging his involvement in misappropriation of funds of the Pakistan-India-Lanka Committee (PILCOM), the organising body of the 1996 World Cup held in the subcontinent.
Following his suspension, Dalmiya resigned as CAB president and Prasun Mukherjee, also the Kolkata Police Commissioner, was elected unopposed as the new chief of the association earlier this year.
Mukherjee, who had lost the presidential race in the bitterly-contested CAB polls to Dalmiya in July last year, is seeking re-election.
Justice Banerjee, delivering the order on Dalmiya's application challenging his suspension, observed that clause V of Rule 38 (suspension of any office-bearer) of the BCCI had not been registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies of Registration Act.
Dalmiya's counsel, Satyabrata Mukherjee and Arindam Banerjee, had earlier submitted before the court that the BCCI, which is registered under the TNSRA, had amended Rule 38 in September 2000, but did not register the amendment as per the Societies Act.
The BCCI had later applied for registration with condonation of time, but the application hasn't been approved by the TNSRA yet.
Board secretary Niranjan Shah, who air-dashed to the Kolkata on Friday morning went into a huddle immediately after the order along with the BCCI's lawyers to work out the next course of action.
"We are taking legal opinion and we will move the division bench today itself," Shah said.
Dalmiya was also busy consulting his lawyers.
When contacted, the former BCCI chief said, "I don't want to say anything now. I am consulting my lawyers. Please wait for a couple of hours."
