Close on the heels of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filing charge sheet in a multi-crore funds embezzlement, the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) has landed in the eye of the storm as Governor Satya Pal Malik assigned a fresh inquiry to Advisor in-charge of sports Vijay Kumar. Highly placed official sources insist a major overhaul in the JKCA is around the corner.
Documents accessed by The Quint allege that an interim Committee of Administrators (COA) has affected fundamental structural changes in the JKCA’s constitution to terminate membership and voting rights of all the existing 32 constituent clubs and started an exercise to replace them with new ‘District Cricket Associations’.
Representatives of JKCA’s constituent clubs have petitioned Raj Bhavan, as well as J&K High Court, while contending that the COA’s job was limited to making certain amendments in rules and regulations and affecting “some administrative changes” in conformity with the Lodha Committee recommendations as endorsed by the Supreme Court.
It also had to register same changes with the Registrar of Societies in J&K and hold the elections for Working Committee and General Council ahead of the election of new apex office-bearers within two months.
CEO Says Everything Is in Place
“That’s exactly what we have done,” JKCA’s interim Chief Executive Officer Syed Ashiq Hussain Bukhari told The Quint. “We have gone strictly as per the Lodha Committee recommendations followed by directions of the Supreme Court and J&K High Court. As directed, we have drafted an exhaustive constitution and got the changes registered with the Registrar of Societies in J&K Government”.
Bukhari maintained that changes in the JKCA constitution had been drafted by two eminent jurists and subsequently endorsed and registered by Registrar of Societies.
“We have done it to break the decades-long monopoly of certain vested interests. Previously, there were only two groups — one each from Srinagar and Jammu. Each controlled 16 clubs. So only ruling politicians like Farooq Abdullah and Imran Ansari would by default become JKCA’s presidents. We have done away with that system and proposed to give representations to District Associations, three votes to each of 22 districts”, Bukhari said.
Lodha Committee Recommendations
Justice RM Lodha, retired Chief Justice of Supreme Court, was appointed in January 2015 as head of a three-member committee to suggest administrative reforms in the BCCI when charges of corruption, match-fixing and betting stirred the game of cricket in India.
On 18 July 2016, bench of Justice DY Chandrachud endorsed many of the Lodha Committee recommendations. It included disqualification of the apex office-bearers or members in case they held a public office (politicians and government officials) or those having reached age of 70 years.
On 9 August 2018, a three-member bench comprising then-CJI Dipak Misra, AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud ordered that an interim COA should draft BCCI’s constitution in light of the Lodha Committee’s endorsed recommendations within one month and get the same registered with the Registrar of Societies, Chennai.
It ordered that subsequently the BCCI’s State associations should draft their constitutions on similar lines and get the same registered with respective registrars of societies with submission of a certificate of compliance to the CEO at BCCI.
On 13 October 2017, Justice Aloke Aradhe of J&K High Court directed appointment of retired judge of Supreme Court of India, CK Prasad, and retired Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court, Rifat Alam, as members of the COA for JKCA.
Subsequently, on 6 December 2017, Division Bench of Mohammad Yaqoob Mir and Ali Mohammad Magrey further ordered appointment of retired Deputy Inspector General of Police, SAH Bukhari, as interim CEO. It also ordered retired judge Mohammad Basheerudin’s appointment as Ombudsman to resolve internal disputes of some clubs affiliated to JKCA.
Elections to JKCA’s Working Committee, which draws 64 members from 32 affiliate clubs and elects the apex office-bearers, as also to the 160-member General Council, which gets five members from each club, had become necessary after endorsement of the Lodha Committee recommendations by the Supreme Court. Five of the eight apex office-bearers, including President Imran Ansari (then Minister of Sports) had to quit for one or the other disqualification.
‘Monopoly Follows Monopoly’
One of the prominent complainants, former General Secretary of JKCA Iqbal Ahmad Shah, has claimed in his representations that the interim COA has “attempted to impose a fresh monopoly” over JKCA under the smokescreen of Supreme Court of India and the J&K High Court orders and Lodha Committee recommendations.
“They have enacted a fraud. Neither Lodha nor any court has terminated BCCI’s constituent associations. BCCI’s COA has lawfully introduced only some administrative changes. It has not made any structural change. It’s fine that all politicians and government officials, those having attained 70 years of age and those having served for three tenures of three years each (total nine years) have been made ineligible. This is what JKCA’s COA should have done”, Shah asserted.
“Contrarily, they have tampered with JKCA’s fundamental structure. (JKCA’s) Constitution makes it clear that the structural changes can come only through a resolution passed at an extraordinary meeting at the General Council by a majority of three-fourths of the members. Courts or COA can’t interfere with it”, Shah added.
Governor’s Unlawful Appointment as ‘Patron’
According to Iqbal Shah and other complainants, some clubs and former office-bearers had filed caveats with the Registrar of Societies, requesting him not to accept amendments to the fundamental structure.
“In the newly drafted constitution, the interim COA has proposed Governor as Patron of JKCA without knowledge and approval of Raj Bhavan. How can Governor be proposed as Patron of a private society? On these lines, BCCI should have made President of India as its Patron. Have they done it?”, Shah added.
He complained that Registrar of Societies refused to hear the complainants and registered the “illegal amendments” fraudulently.
Judges-Lawyers-Police Axis
“The CEO is a well-mannered retired Police officer but unfortunately a number of serving and retired Police officials are now calling the shots in JKCA. They include selectors and secretaries to officers. Some of them are very much influential and they seem to enjoy support from a section of judges and lawyers. We still have high hopes in judiciary. We hope someone will come to the rescue of cricket from judiciary”, said the president of a club affiliated to the JKCA for over 30 years.
Head of another aggrieved club pointed out that CAO’s draft was legally deficient as the two retired judges, including one simultaneously holding the highest office in Press Council of India, have signed the draft as ‘Justices’.
“J&K High Court had appointed CEO and members of the COA specifically for two months. They have never sought an extension to their tenure. High Court hasn’t granted it either. How can they operate eight months after expiry of their term and get this new constitution registered. This all is in total contravention to the Supreme Court and High Court orders as also to the good job done by BCCI’s COA,” he asserted.
Top criminal lawyer at the Supreme Court of India, Rizwan Merchant told The Quint that it was indeed questionable that the CEO upon his appointment further proceeded to appoint none other than the nephew of one of the judges of Division Bench that appointed him earlier.
“They are also well aware that another standing counsel of JKCA has his wife as the Law Officer with Registrar of Societies. This raises serious doubts about the fairness in their working and rather reflects quid pro quo. JKCA can’t be fiefdom of one or two particular families. How can the husband help in drafting JKCA’s constitution and the same lawyer’s wife get it registered with Registrar of Societies?” Merchant said.
“The scandalous intentions are also evident from the fact that the interim CEO and COA have introduced the provision of Donor Members, opening up a Pandora’s box to conduct financial investigations into the working of JKCA. Now anybody of 21 years of age, who is ready to pay Rs 10 lakh, is entitled to become member of JKCA. This will clearly lead to corruption and allow criminal elements to seep in the association. Anybody paying 10 lakhs will expect returns. This is unprecedented in BCCI and other states’ cricket associations. I hope Governor and High Court will notice it and terminate this new registration”, advocate Merchant asserted.
Responding to the allegations, Registrar of Societies Bilal Ahmad Bhat claimed that he registered the amended constitution on 3 October, 2018, “as per the Supreme Court and High Court directions and Lodha Committee recommendations”. “Had I not done it, I would have committed contempt of court,” Bhat averred.
CEO Bukhari said, “We have done it all as per court directions. These people (complainants) have challenged it in High Court. If the High Court finds anything amiss, we will make amendments as per its directions”.
(The writer is a Srinagar-based journalist. He can be reached @ahmedalifayyaz.)
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