Supreme Court refuses to stay Goa Cricket Association Elections but results will not be announced

Hearing an appeal filed by Goa Cricket Association against a Bombay High Court order by which the HC had appointed a Committee to monitor the election process, the Supreme Court of India yesterday refused to stay the elections of the Goa Cricket Association but ordered that the results of the election should not be published.

Sitting on the Vacation Bench Justice Arun Mishra said that the result of the election process will be dependent on the probe that is ongoing by Bombay High Court orders. In addition, the financial committee of the Association has been barred from taking any financial decisions, apart from the day to day activities.

Before the Apex Court, the Association submitted that the order of the High Court was illegal as the Commission already had a Committee regarding elections. However, the Supreme Court failed to agree and said, "Normally the court would observe the rules and not interfere with an ongoing election process but to maintain the purity and sanctity of the process it has to step in. When there are serious allegations, the court cannot remain a spectator. Let the election process go on.” Earlier, the High Court too had refused to stay the election process and had appointed a committee headed by Justice (Retd) A P Lawande and two members, NitinSardesai and RajnikantLavanis to oversee the election process.

The High Court had also lashed out on the fact that some of the clubs were not being allowed to vote as they did not submit the names of their representatives by the scheduled date and said that it "appears prime facie to be calculated move on the part of Salkar".

Accordingly, after the High Court order all 104 clubs will be voting in the election, while as per Goa Cricket Association, only 64 were eligible to vote.