Karnataka State Cricket Association elections: High Court declares K.N. Shanth Kumar’s nomination papers valid for president’s post

The Karnataka High Court held that the Electoral Officer (EO) The Printers (Mysore) Private Ltd. canceled its decision to reject the nomination papers of director KN Shanth Kumar and declared his nomination papers valid for the post of president of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA).

Justice Suraj Govindaraj passed the order on November 29 (Saturday) while allowing Mr. Kumar’s petition challenging the EO’s November 24 order. The nomination papers were rejected on the grounds that Deccan Herald and Prajavani (DH&PV) Sports Club, which has corporate membership in KSCA represented by Mr. Kumar, was in arrears of ₹200 crore.

The rejection of Mr. Kumar’s nomination papers had paved the way for the unanimous election of former cricketer Venkatesh Prasad as president, as his nomination paper was found valid, and the withdrawal of nomination papers by Kalpana Venkatachar, the third contestant in support of Mr. Prasad.

With today’s order of the court, the stage has been set for the presidential election. The court said that the remaining election process will be carried out according to the event calendar predetermined by the court, with the elections planned to be held on December 7.

The court also directed the EO to publish the list of candidates vying for the presidential post by 3 pm on November 29.

Background of the case

On behalf of Mr. Kumar, it was alleged that the debts were paid before the nomination papers were examined by the EO; because the regulations only state that constituent corporate members cannot contest elections “as long as they are in arrears” in payment of subscription fees of more than ₹100. Since Mr. Kumar’s institution, DH&PV Sports Club, had paid the dues before the scrutiny of the nomination papers, there was no obstacle for him to contest the elections and this was done in his name.

Meanwhile, the KSCA CEO had told the Court that there was a list of members who had defaulted in payment of membership and therefore members could not be informed about delays in payment of membership fee before the start of the election process, as per the regulations, a member is prohibited from voting and participating in elections until any delay is paid.

It was argued on behalf of Mr. Parasad and Ms. Kalpana that it was right to reject Mr. Kumar’s nomination papers as the debts had to be paid before the nomination papers were filed.

To a question posed by the Court, the EO had told the Court on November 26 that the arrears of ₹ 200 had been paid before the scrutiny of Mr. Kumar’s nomination papers, but the claim that the payment was due when the nomination papers were filed was rejected. The court also watched the video recording of the scrutiny process of Mr Kumar’s nomination papers.