HC summons Azharuddin in contempt case

HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Friday issued a Form-1 notice to summon Mohammed Azharuddin, then president of Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA), to appear before it on June 23 in a contempt case filed against the cricket body for wilful disobedience in complying with court orders over allowing the Nalgonda District Cricket Association (NDCA) to participate in league matches.

Justice Tadakamalla Vinod Kumar was dealing with a contempt petition filed by NDCA secretary Syed Ameenuddin, who brought the violation of the High Court order by HCA’s managing committee.

Earlier, while dealing with the petitions of NDCA, the High Court had issued orders in 2021 directing the HCA to allow the petitioner to participate in the league matches for the year 2021-22 and to extend all the rights and privileges to NDCA, which it is entitled to as an affiliated club of HCA.

Based on the court orders, the Nalgonda cricket team was permitted belatedly to participate in three matches in the two-day league and some school tournaments.

Despite the court orders being in subsistence, Azharuddin along with Mir Sami Ali, Mohammed Yousuf and Bairaj Rath did not issue players registration cards for the Nawab MAK Pataudi T20 tourney to NDCA.

Challenging the same, they approached the High Court, which ordered HCA to allow the Nalgonda unit in all matches conducted in 2022.

The contempt petitioner alleged that Azharuddin and other members did not heed the court orders and had in a press release asked candidates from Nalgonda to come to HCA to select a team of their own.

Azharuddin, HCA secretary R. Vijayanand and others ensured that there was no team from NDCA in the Under-19 tournaments at Sanathnagar in 2022. Zeeshan Mahmood, counsel for the petitioner, submitted that Azharuddin and Vijayanand’s acts were contempt of court.

In previous hearings, Vijayanand appeared before the High Court, which was not satisfied with the counter filed by Azharuddin in the contempt case.

Taking a serious note of it, the High Court issued Form-1 notices (for appearance) to Azharuddin and directed him to appear on June 23.