PANJIM: A Division Bench of the Bombay High Court comprising Justice F M Reis and K L Wadne, ousted the three member committee headed by Dr Shekhar Salkar to oversee the Goa Cricket Association (GCA) elections, holding that it manipulated the elections process and there was prima facie evidence that documents were tampered with to swing the bitterly fought acrimonious elections in favour of Salkar’s meeting.
The decision has quite effectively saved the GCA elections from being completely rigged and manipulated in a shameless manner by Goa’s best known cancer specialist, who is close to the BJP establishment and is believed to be the point person in Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s constant attempts to take control of the cash rich cricket body.
The Court on Thursday appointed a new Election Committee headed by Justice (retd) A P Lawande to oversee Goa Cricket Club (GCA) elections along with senior advocate Nitin Sardesai and Rajnikant Lavanis and permitted all the 104 clubs to cast their vote.
The judge came down heavily on Dr Salkar for tampering with the GCA files and directed him not to violate court orders. In its order the Court expressed that any election should be free and fair.
GCA secretary Chetan Dessai and former president Vinod Phadke, who are the front runners for the top post had filed a writ petition against current GCA president Dr Salkar and alleged that the latter had forged the nominations of those who would be eligible to vote.
The High Court also observed that the decision not to allow some clubs to vote because they did not submit names of their representatives 15 days in advance appears prime facie a case of manipulation and that it amounted to be a calculated move on part of Salkar.
The GCA had allowed only 64 of the clubs to vote as the rest had supposedly failed to submit names of their representatives 15 days in advance as mandated by the cricketing body’s constitution.
The new Election Committee will now scrutinize the GCA forms filed by all the clubs members. The GCA petitioners advocate, Vaibhav Amonkar also said that they were directed by the court to conduct the elections after considering all the nominees for the GCA polls. “The nomination papers of Chetan Desai, secretary of GCA will be scrutinized by the new Election Committee who will formulate their own procedures,” said Advocate Abhijeet Kamat, who is representing the petitions filed by the 58 clubs. The new Election Committee is also empowered to disqualify any person who is not eligible to vote.
The GCA elections will be held as per scheduled on June 28 and the election process will be completed by Sunday stated advocate Amonkar after the court verdict.
Advocate Kamat expressed satisfaction with the Bombay High Court’s decision and said “The GCA has been directed to finalise the voters list as per their last meeting held on May 30 in Porvorim. “All the 104 clubs will be allowed to vote as per the courts directives and the election will go ahead as per scheduled.”
The unfair means adopted to reject nominees by Dr Salkar and fraudulently rejecting particular nominees was debated in the court room by the advocates.
