In a huge victory for Mohammed Azharuddin, Ombudsman Justice (retd) Deepak Verma has reinstated the former India cricket captain as the President of the Hyderabad Cricket Association. This was after Azhar had challenged his suspension from the post by five members of the Apex Council.
Justice Verma, in his order, ‘temporarily disqualified’ all the five members namely K John Manoj, Vice President, R Vijayanand, Naresh Sharma, Surender Agarwal, Anuradha.
Azhar was accused of violation of the constitution and alleged conflict of interests.
Justice Verma said in his order the decision to suspend the former India skipper was forwarded to the Ombudsman and, therefore, had no legal basis.
“Apex Council on its own accord cannot take such a decision. Therefore, I deem it appropriate to set aside the resolution (if any) passed by these five members in suspending the duly elected President, issuing a show cause notice and direct them to refrain from any subsequent actions against the President of HCA, Mohammed Azharuddin,” news agency PTI quoted Justice (retd) Verma, as saying.
The Ombudsman added, “Therefore, I direct that Mohammed Azharuddin shall continue as President and all complaints against office bearers shall only be decided by the Ombudsman.
“From the aforesaid facts and features, it is clearly reflected that instead of encouraging the game of Cricket, each one is playing their own politics for the reasons best known to them. Thus, it defeats the very purpose for which HCA has been formed.”
Coming down heavily on the five members, Justice Verma said that ‘just because these five members believe on their own accord that I am not ombudsman does not take away my powers which are now been confirmed by the High Court judgment and the minutes of the 85th AGM as well.’
He said, “These members cannot evade the due process of law just by stating that they don’t agree to my appointment. It is clear from the above, that these members have malafide intentions and do not want smooth functioning of HCA.”
He concluded by saying that all five members had been ‘temporarily disqualified’ from performing their duties as office bearers of the Apex Council.
“It is for this reason and reasons mentioned above, I hereby direct that these members are temporarily disqualified from performing their duties as office bearers of the Apex Council till the time these Complaints attain finality,” the Ombudsman said.
Last month, the ‘temporarily disqualified’ five members had issued a show-cause notice to Azhar asking him to send his response within seven days. The members had accused Azhar, among other allegations, of conflict of interests by allegedly becoming a mentor of a cricket club in Dubai.