Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday expressed its displeasure at how things were managed during the recent Indo-Bangladesh Test match at Uppal Stadium in Hyderabad.
A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice Shameem Akhter was dealing with a PIL by M. Govinda Reddy, an advocate of the city, seeking to direct the Hyderabad Cricket Association to implement the recommendations of the Justice Lodha Committee and also to appoint an administrator to take care of affairs of the HCA in view of cricket matches scheduled from February 9.
The bench, on February 6, while refusing to appoint a commissioner or supervisor to oversee the conduct of the match in view of the non-existence of an elected body of the HCA, had directed Ratnakar Shetty, an observer from the BCCI, to take care of the conduct of the match and submit a report to the court.
Accordingly, the observer submitted the report to the court on Tuesday and after perusing the report, the bench commented that it is “damning”.
The bench noted that the HCA has claimed in the report that Rs 75 lakh was spent every day for providing food to 2,000 policemen who were deployed at the stadium for security during the match.
The bench expressed wonder at the statement that 25 per cent of tickets were given away as complimentary. Pointing to details in the report such as the way contracts were given away and how single tenders were called, the bench said that this was shocking.
The bench said that the first four pages of the report will be given to the petitioner and other respondents in the case and the remaining parts of the report will be kept in a sealed cover.
While adjourning the case for 10 days, the bench said that it has to now devise methods to see that anyone who is at the helm of HCA does not indulge in such acts.
