DDCA members reject 77 good governance items, vote for 'proxy'

The Delhi and Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) members have rejected a whopping 77 out of 103 clauses on good corporate governance including the one on abolition of the controversial 'proxy votes'.
In what can be called as complete defiance and lack of understanding of the Lodha Committee reforms, the DDCA members during a secret ballot system at the Extra-Ordinary General Meeting (EGM) on September 15, also rejected administrator Justice (Retd) Vikramajit Sen's proposed amendments as per changes in company law.
Sen, in a notification, stated that there were only only 26 items that found favour with the members while 77 including abolition of proxy voting system, which the 3/4th voted against.

Proxy voting system as per company law allows a candidate contesting in the DDCA election to collect signatures of his voters, who need not be physically present during voting.
Many top officials including a few who are running the show in BCCI have allegedly used and abused the proxy system to their advantage.
The abolition of proxy system was item no 96 on the agenda which the members rejected. Interestingly, points 94, 95, 97 and 98 have been accepted for amendment.

These are points pertaining to appointment of Ombudsman and also certain clauses related to election process.
For any amendment to pass, a three-fourth majority is needed and in this case it was the majority which wanted the controversial system to remain intact.

When Justice Sen was contacted, he told PTI: "Not only did they reject all the good governance points in Lodha Committee recommendations but they have also summarily rejected my proposals based on latest company law amendments. This may amount to contempt of the High Court Order."
When asked what is the way forward, Sen replied: "We need to analyse the data."
However, Sen made it clear that the two international matches allotted to Feroz Shah Kotla will be held without any hiccups.
"I can assure you that the New Zealand T20 and the Test match against Sri Lanka will be held without any problems under my supervision."

Some of the senior DDCA officials, who were present during the EGM said that the association missed out on clearing the mess.
"What most of the members do not understand is that voting for proxy won't help their case. It means that the administrator will remain in charge of the association. It was really foolish on the part of those who rejected the amendments," said a senior DDCA official.
Interestingly, BCCI acting president CK Khanna, often referred by his detractors as the 'Proxy King of DDCA' had recently come out on record supporting the abolition of the controversial system, which he believes had tarnished his image.

"I have told my supporters to vote against proxy system. A perception has been created by people that I am the root cause of proxy system. I want this perception to change," Khanna had told PTI before the EGM.
However the pattern of the voting shows that not all of Khanna's supporters followed his diktat.