T S Krishnamurthy, observer for Tuesday's Board of Control for Cricket in India's elections, on Monday agreed to allow the president's vote, by virtue of him being the chairman of the Annual General Meeting, and finalized the list of authorised voters.
He also resolved the dispute between Jharkhand and Bihar by giving voting rights to the Jharkhand State Cricket Association, while representatives of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Netaji Cricket Club (NCC) have been cleared to vote.
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Representatives of a large number of affiliate units had met Krishnamurthy on Sunday to submit their demands and counter-demands on authorisation of nominees for the AGM.
With the Jharkhand representative being allowed to attend the AGM, Krishnamurthy's earlier order, allowing Bihar Cricket Association to vote, was reversed.
Krishnamurthy however allowed presidential challenger Sharad Pawar to be nominated from West Zone. In his order, he said he heard eleven individuals and representative of various affiliated units before pronouncing his verdict.
On the issue of zonal representative for the post of president, he said while the incumbent Ranbir Singh Mahendra, who is from North zone, is eligible to contest for re-election, as per rules it is not necessary for the challenger to be also from the same zone (North).
"Under the principle of rotation as provided in the rule 20 (i), the contestant for the post of president should be from the next zone (West Zone in the present case.)"
While allowing the chairman of the AGM to vote, in addition to those given by the affiliate members, Krisnamurthy pointed out some anomalies in the rules of the BCCI and said the Board should clarify the provision by a suitable amendment, or the court could clarify this position by a suitable direction for further meeting.
"Having regard to the ambiguity in the rules.... and having regard to the past practice when the chairman was exercising the extra vote and as per records produced before me, it is now decided that for the purpose of this meeting the whole practice can be continued," he said.
On the dispute between Jharkhand State Cricket Association and Bihar Cricket Association, he said, the records of last year's AGM showed that the minutes relating to the change in the name of BCA to JSCA were also confirmed.
On claims by two factions that they were the authorized representative of Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association, he said that UPCA is already functioning as an affiliated member of the BCCI and will be to continue to participate and vote.
With regard to the two factions of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association, he said the representative authorised by virtue of the HP sports registration and recognition and regulation of associations 2005, and by the virtue of registration and recognition from the HP Cricket Association, under the presidentship of Rajinder Zar by the state government, under the said act, the representative authorized by the state association was allowed to vote.
He also noted that the writ petition filed by the association challenging the validity of the act has reportedly being dismissed by the HP high court.
On DDCA, the order said, the DDCA representative has pointed out that the non-compliance with the company's act provision relating to the AGM did not affect the continuance of the existing vote.
Krishnamurthy said the Company Law Board which heard the case noted that the AGM could not be held because of a certain suit filed in a district court regarding the shareholders right, which was still pending, and unless that was decided, the AGM could not be held.
"In the circumstances, DDCA would be allowed to participate and vote in the AGM through the duly authorized person."
The order noted that the Netaji Cricket Club had duly held the AGM and passed its audited balance sheet and that the annual returns along with the balance sheet has been filed before the registrar of Kolkata.
"There is nothing in the Company Law which debars the existing board except for certain penal consequences for non-compliance of said provisions so they will be allowed to participate and vote," he said.
