February 4, 2011

Cricket officials are public servants Indian Supreme Court

In a ruling the Indian Supreme Court has upheld the Kerala High Court’s view that the cricket officials of Kerala are public servants. This will create a very far reaching effect on Indian Cricket administration that from now onward anyone can sue against the cricket officials.The Kerala Cricket Association tried to established in the High Court that the Cricket Association is a private body and cannot be tried under The the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, which applies only to public servants.

Justice VS Sirpurkar and TS Thakur comprised the bench. The KCA president, TR Balakrishanan, and secretary, TC Matthew filed the appeal against the Kerala High court. But the Bench rejected the appeal and explained that the Kerala cricket board enjoys monopoly on cricket in the state and so does public function. So the cricket body must be tried under the public law. The BCCI is such a body and KCA is a member of it.  BCCI is consistently trying to hold that it was a private body.

The original case was filed two years ago in a vigilance court in Kerala by Balaji Iyengar who was, a chartered accountant and former Kerala junior cricketer. He sued against KCA. The vigilance court gave the judgment holding that the cricket bodies are private body. Then the complaint went to high court and won the case.  Afterward KCA appealed to Supreme Court.

The complainant, Balaji Iyengar , a chartered accountant and former Kerala junior cricketer, had filed the original complaint against the KCA in the Vigilance Court two years ago. The court ruled in favor of the KCA, saying its officials were not public servants, but Iyengar challenged the ruling in the High Court.

Source: NDTV