Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court, while refusing to stay the elections to the Hyderabad Cricket Association scheduled for January 17, said on Wednesday that the results will not be declared till further orders.
Justice Challa Kodandaram, a vacation judge of the High Court, was hearing a civil revision petition by the HCA, represented by its honorary secretary John Manoj challenging an order by the V Additional Districts & Sessions Judge, Ranga Reddy district, appointing an Advocate Commissioner to conduct the elections.
Vedula Venkata Ramana, senior counsel appearing for the HCA, submitted that the election process has already commenced as per the bylaws of the association and the last date for filing of nominations was January 10, 2017.
He said Bharath Cricket and its members obtained the order from the lower court by misrepresenting the facts for conducting elections though the ad-hoc committee under the supervision of advocate-commissioner.
Mr Ramana said that there was no provision under the bylaws to appoint an ad-hoc committee and the order of the lower court was contrary to the judgement of the Supreme Court in the BCCI case.
He urged the court to stay the election process. Counsels appearing for Prakash Chand Jain, ad-hoc chairman of the HCA and the Bharath Cricket Club, urged the court not to stay the election process as the term of the existing committee of the HCA has already expired.
While making it clear that during vacation it was not possible for the court to hear the case in detail, the judge ordered completion of the election process as per the notification and directed the polling officials not to declare the results. The case was posted to January 18.
Plea on Balayya film shot down
A vacation bench of the Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday refused to permit a plea as lunch motion challenging the AP government’s decision to exempt TD MLA and actor N. Balakrishna starrer Telugu film Gautamiputra Satakarni from paying entertainment tax.
The bench, comprising Justice Challa Kodandaram and Justice G. Shyam Prasad, expressed disinclination to permit the plea as lunch motion when advocate P.V. Krishnaiah urged it to hear the plea by C.B. Adarsh Kumar, a practising advocate of the city, against the exemption in view of public interest involved.
Mr Krishnaiah said that the AP government issued a GO on January 9, 2017 exempting the film from the purview of entertainment tax without following the procedure prescribed under the AP Entertainments Tax Rules 1939 and provisions of the AP Entertainments Tax Act, 1939. This clearly was to do undue favour to the film producer at the cost of the public exchequer incurring loss to the state, he averred.
Reacting to the submissions, Justice Kodandaram said that the government was also empowered to recover the tax when it found that the exemption was unwarranted.
While stating that there was no urgency involved in the petition, for it to be taken up during the vacation, the bench told the petitioner to move the petition before the regular bench after Sankranti vacation.
