Delhi High Court notice to DDCA on former cricketer Kirti Azad's plea alleging irregularities

The Delhi High Court on Friday issued notice on a plea filed by former cricketer Kirti Azad, alleging irregularities in the functioning of the Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) [Kirti Jha Azad v UOI and Ors]..Justice Rekha Palli issued the notice to DDCA, former acting president of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) CK Khanna and the Central government, directing them to file their responses by April 18.The Court, however, refused to grant any interim relief to Azad who had sought a stay on issuance of any fresh membership of the DDCA..The petition by Azad said that the DDCA, which controls all the cricketing activities in Delhi and is also responsible for the selection of U-14, U-16, U-19, U-23, senior and women's U-19 teams, does not have a proper, transparent and fair membership system as there are no guidelines/criteria as to how the membership is given.“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. To this extent, multiple voters/members of DDCA belong to the same address, such as in the case of Mr. Narinder Kumar Batra and Mr. C.K. Khanna who have multiple DDCA members in their families. Mr. Narinder Kumar Batra has 17 members in his family and Mr. C.K. Khanna has more than 25 members in his family,” read the petition.The petition added that this process had led to a few people dominating the elections 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 lack of a membership waiting list adds to this discord as people have no idea where they stand. For years and till date no one knows as to how and when the new members are enrolled in the DDCA,” the petition stated. Azad further argued that because of corruption and nepotism in the cricketing association, the selection of various teams to represent Delhi in major tournaments was impacted. He added that in almost all trophies like Vijay Merchant, Vinoo Mankad, Cooch Behar, CK Nayudu, Ranji Trophy as well as Vijay Hazare and Syed Mushtaq Ali, Delhi was eliminated in the preliminary stage.The plea, therefore, sought appointment of an administrator to take over the affairs of the DDCA and recast the entire voters’ list on the basis of one family one vote. He also prayed that membership of DDCA should be granted to first-class cricketers and a fresh election of the apex body should be held..The petition has been filed through advocates Deepika Kalia, Kapish Sethi and Mrityunjai Singh and was argued by Senior Advocate Vikas Singh.Senior Advocate Sandeep Sethi appeared for the DDCA while advocate Amit Mahajan appeared for the Central government.