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Rajasthan High Court on Friday extended the stay on holding fresh election to the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) till further orders. The RCA election in which Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav was in the fray for the post of president was scheduled to be held on Friday. Justice Mahendra Goyal also issued notice to the RCA’s Election Officer Ramlubhaya, Principal Secretary Sports of Rajasthan Government and Registrar cooperative to file their replies within a week.
The matter has now been placed for hearing on October 11.
On Thursday, the court had brushed aside the contentions of RCA and stayed the election.
A petition was filed by District Cricket Associations (DCAs) of Dausa, Nagaur, Sriganganagar and Alwar districts.
It was alleged in the writ petition that the RCA election officer Lubhaya is a retired IAS officer who is not an “independent” person.
The counsel appearing for the DCAs argued that Lubhaya was in active engagement of the state of Rajasthan and was working under the chief minister whose son Vaibhav Gehlot is not only outgoing president of RCA but is also contesting for the same post again.
It was alleged that in March this year, Lubhaya was appointed chairman of a high-powered committee for delimitation of the districts in Rajasthan for a period of six months and subsequently as election officer on September 8 this month.
Later the state government extended his term in the committee up to 2023 only on September 13 to “influence” the elections of RCA. The petition alleged that the election officer is not a “fair and independent” person, as contemplated by the Supreme Court while approving Justice (retd) Lodha Committee report in 2016 in the matter of BCCI.
Promoted
It was argued by the RCA counsel that if mere father is the criteria to say that elections are being influenced then Jay Shah is secretary of BCCI and his father is Union home minister, thus it cannot be said that even BCCI is reeling under political pressure.
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