On Sunday, Ombudsman Justice (retd) Deepak Verma reinstated Mohammed Azharuddin as the President of the Hyderabad Cricket Association.
The Hyderabad Cricket Association (ICA) President Mohammed Azharuddin was restored to power by the Ombudsman (retired) Deepak Verma, who also “temporarily suspended” five members of the Apex Council. In an interim order, the HCA Ombudsman ordered that five members of the HCA Apex Council —K John Manoj, Vice President; R Vijayanand, Vice President; and Naresh Sharma, Treasurer; and Anuradha, Secretary—are on a temporary leave of absence from the organization. The Apex Council found that Azharuddin had violated the Apex Council’s constitution and had “suspended” him.
Azharuddin came under fire over allegations of a conflict of interest. Justice Verma, a retired judge, addressed the allegations against Azharuddin in his ruling, and the points he raised in his ruling are crucial to this case.
“Apex Council does not have the authority to act unilaterally on this matter. It is appropriate for me to disregard the vote passed by these five members in suspending the President of HCA, Mohammed Azharuddin, and to issue a show-cause notice to the five individuals, telling them to refrain from further action against the President of HCA “Retired Justice Verma stated.
“So, I direct that Mohammed Azharuddin remains President, and all grievances about office bearers should be addressed only by the Ombudsman.
“From the preceding facts and features, it is clear that each person is pursuing their own agenda, not interested in helping the game of cricket. Thus, this means that HCA defeats the very purpose it was formed for “Justice Verma made an observation:
The Chief Justice, Justice AK Sikri, explained in his judgment, “As for the five Apex Council members, even though they believe that I do not have ombudsman powers, this does not take away my actual powers, which have now been affirmed by the High Court order and the 85th AGM minutes.”
“Members of this group have no grounds to avoid judicial process just by claiming that they don’t agree with my selection. From the above, it is clear that these members have bad motives and are preventing HCA from functioning smoothly.
I hereby direct that these members be barred from performing their duties as office-holders of the Apex Council until the Complaints’ cases are concluded, for the following reasons:
