Goa Cricket Association elections on June 28: SC

Fatorda Cricket Ground

New Delhi, June 26 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Friday declined to interfere with the elections of the Goa Cricket Association (GCA) scheduled to take place on Sunday (June 28) but directed that the results of the elections would not be declared and kept in a sealed cover.

Apex Court vacation judge, Justice Arun Mishra, ordered the polling to elect the president and the managing committee of GCA would take place on June 28 as scheduled.

The GCA moved the apex court on Friday challenging the Thursday order of the Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court by which it had constituted a new election committee comprising former judge of Bombay High court Justice A.P.Lawande as its president and senior advocate Nitin Sardessai and Rajnikant Lawandis as its members.

Rajnikant Lawandis was also on the earlier three-member committee set up by the GCA to conduct the election.

The apex court said the results of the elections would be subject to the outcome of the matter pending before the High Court as it asked it to hear the matter on July 6.

Restraining the outgoing office bearers and the managing committee from taking any financial or major decisions, the apex court however, said that it would carry on with the day to day functioning of the GCA.

While refusing to interfere with the High Court order, Justice Mishra said that normally the court would observe the rules and not interfere with an ongoing election process but would step in to maintain the purity and sanctity of the process.

When allegations are "serious" the court can't remain a "spectator", Justice Mishra said as senior counsel Gopal Krishna Jain told the court that the High Court has put a new election committee in place when there was a valid election committee already.

"We have to preserve the sanctity of the election", Justice Mishra said as Jain -appearing for GCA - told the court the challenge before the election committee was to determine the future of those who had filed their nomination papers on June 13 - a day after the last date for filing nomination papers.

Expressing the necessity for free and fair elections and apprehension that there were attempts to make it one sided, the High Court had ousted the earlier election committee that was mandated to conduct the elections.

The High Court had further said the new election committee would scrutinise the nomination forms and notify the names of the candidates before the election.

It further said that thereafter the election committee would decide on the applications to appoint representatives who submitted their nomination papers on June 13, 2015, to enable them to cast their votes.

The High Court directed the GCA to extend full co-operation to the new election committee and said that the results of Sunday's election would be subject to the outcome of the case being examined by it.