Delhi cricket polls may be invalidated, violations under scrutiny: Vinod Rai

A day after television news channel owner Rajat Sharma’s panel swept the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) polls, chairman of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA), Vinod Rai, Tuesday warned that the election results could be annulled because of ethical and constitutional inadequacies.

“Since these DDCA elections took place without a constitution that is endorsed by the Supreme Court, it can get annulled at a later date.” The former CAG, along with former India cricketer Diana Eduljee, was appointed by the SC to implement the Justice RM Lodha recommendations. He also pointed to the DDCA’s failure in putting in place the Supreme Court-advocated checks and balances to avert possible conflict of interest situations.

“There are very strict conflict of interest norms laid down by the Lodha committee. The ombudsman and an ethics officer ensure that conflict of interest norms are not attracted adversely. These elections took place without the scrutiny of an ombudsman or an ethics officer, so there remains a question mark over the qualification of candidates to fight elections,” he said.

Incidentally, the DDCA election was held under the watch of the High Court-appointed administrator, Justice Vikramajit Sen, who took charge at Feroz Shah Kotla after an audit report found several cases of embezzlement and illegal transfer of funds by Delhi’s long-standing office-bearers.