Is HCA heading for another legal tangle?

Is HCA heading for another legal tangle?

For the first time in the history of the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA), the general body continued with the Special General Meeting without President Arshad Ayub in the chair. After Ayub walked out within 5 minutes of convening the meeting and the members agreeing to adopt the Lodha Panel recommendations (according to him the meeting was closed thereafter), the members asked Vice-President Prakash Chand Jain to chair the meeting and passed some far reaching resolutions.

Some of the decisions taken were: Deciding the election date and appointment of an ad-hoc committee to overlook the election process. The question that is uppermost on the minds of all is whether the move was constitutionally valid.

"We have our own constitution and bye-laws to follow. There is a procedure in amending the constitution and one cannot overlook the process," Ayub said. "I will follow the book and not anybody else's views or opinions."

"This meeting was called only to 'adopt' the recommendations. Now we will compile all the amendments to be made and circulate it among the members. A second meeting will be held at which time there will be discussion on all the recommendations. After that, the amendments will be ratified at another meeting and then it will be incorporated in the book," Ayub added.

Former secretary PR Man Singh too said that due procedures cannot be overlooked. "According to my understanding, it will take more than two months for the whole process to be completed. If things are speeded up, then we could have an election by January end next year," he said.

Man Singh also added that he was not sure if the decisions taken by the members at the SGM will be legally valid. "Continuing with the meeting in itself is an unprecedented move and subject to a lot of interpretations. Once the president closes the SGM and even if the members deliberate on issues in the same hall, it cannot be a valid meeting."

However, other members said they had not done anything 'unlawfully'."The president just walked out of the meeting. Once, he leaves it doesn't mean that the meeting is closed. The members were asking him questions but he didn't answer them. He never adjourned the meeting nor closed it," a senior member said.

"Once the house adopted the Lodha Panel recommendations, the old constitution has ceased to exist. In such a scenario, the rules and norms of the old constitution are not legally binding," said a former office-bearer.

The member said that the house has not gone in for an 'amendment' to the constitution but has 'adopted' the Memorandum and Rules and Regulations framed by Justice (Retd) RM Lodha. "It is an exhaustive one and has been comprehensively dealt with. There is nothing to add or take away from it. It means that we need to start implementing it right away and that's what we have done," he added.

"The office-bearers cease to be in power once the house has adopted the proposals. Hence, we have appointed an ad-hoc committee. We are also legally bound to follow the Lodha Panel timeline as the HCA had given an undertaking to the High Court in September.We were supposed to conduct the elections on or by November 15 which we failed to do so," another member said and added that Ayub was only trying to buy time by citing legal procedures.

Is the HCA headed for another legal tangle? All eyes are now on Justice (Retd) Lodha to untangle this mess.