Rajasthan Cricket Association poll called off on legal grounds: Official

The election to the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) scheduled for April 26 has been called off because the provisions of a law governing sports bodies in the state are not in conformity with the Supreme Court-appointed Lodha Committee recommendations, a senior official of the association said on Sunday.

RCA Deputy President Mehmood Abdi, in a statement, said the cricket body was in a "peculiar situation" and not in a position to hold election without implementing the key recommendations of the Lodha Committee which has made several proposals for a complete restructuring of the cricket administration in the country.

"Every association is bound to amend its constitution" to bring it in line with the recommendations of the Supreme Court-appointed panel, Abdi said.

He said that when the process of election was started, the amended constitution of the RCA was drafted as per the recommendation of the panel which was to be approved by the Registrar of Cooperative Societies.

"The registrar returned the amended constitution, rejecting the amendments... which are not in conformity with the Rajasthan Sports Act," the official said.

He said some vested interests were creating "bogus impression" about the calling off of the election process.

"The decision to call off the election is solely determined on legal grounds.

"Any association formed in the manner other than as devised by the Lodha Committee will not be recognised by the BCCI. As such, going ahead with election process would not only render the entire process of election void and illegal, but would just be a meaningless cosmetic exercise with consequence other than falling in line with defaulters of Supreme Court orders."

He said the association informed the electoral office about the rejection of the amended constitution which then decided to call off the poll.

--IANS

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