Tripura HC nod & axe for administrator

CHENNAI: These are strange times in Indian cricket. There is no certainty over elections in the BCCI or in the state bodies. A number of associations are under court-appointed administrators. In a queer turn of events, one such administrator has had to step down following instructions from the same court that appointed him. Charges levelled against him are serious.

This incident concerns the Tripura Cricket Association (TCA). The body was in a state of instability despite amending its constitution as per Supreme Court orders, which led to judicial intervention last year.
On the order of the High Co­urt of Tripura, retired judge Alok Baran Pal was appointed administrator last July. But the court had to step in again, after a group of former players and officials filed a PIL, pointing out major irregularities. Pal was relieved of his duties on January 31.

Currently, a three-member committee is in charge of TCA. Court-appointed administrators have been running associations in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Uttarakhand. Nowhere have they faced action or been removed.

According to the High Court of Tripura order accessed by this newspaper, there are four major objections against Pal. 

One, he “incurred expenditure of Rs 18 crore without knowledge and permission” of the court. Two, he “stopped construction of a stadium” being built by TCA. Three, the TCA constitution was “modified and changed without leave of this court”. 

Four and rather unusual, “during the course of hearing the learned administrator expressed lack of proper functioning of his faculties, precisely loss of memory”.

Before concluding that decisions taken by Pal “shall not be given effect to, unless mandated otherwise”, Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Arindam Lodh said in the order, “the issue of expenditure incurred during the tenure of office of the Administrator be also examined.”

Pal’s actions started drawing attention soon after he took charge, when he appointed four “advisors” to assist him for monthly salaries of Rs 75,000 each. Two were discharging the duties of general secretary and treasurer, while others were looking after tournaments. The court overturned these appointments with immediate effect. “No steps for making such appointments were taken as was so required in accordance with law,” said the order.

A former judge of the Gauhati High Court, Pal raised eyebrows also by stopping the construction of a stadium being built by the TCA, work for which had started in 2017 after former Chief Minister Manik Sarkar laid the foundation stone. According to TCA insiders, Pal ruled that the cost (Rs 185 crore) quoted by the company handling the job was too high.

The new committee of administrators is looking after day-to-day activities and working towards conducting elections of the body.

“As per the court’s instruction, we will review the constitution and see if it needs amendments. Elections will be held once it is ascertained that everything is in order. Election commissioner has already been appointed,” said BN Majumdar, one of the three-member committee and a lawyer, who played cricket for Tripura in the late eighties.