At sharp 9.30 am, Justice Vikramajit Sen, former Supreme Court Judge and recently appointed administrator of the Delhi and District Cricket Association by the Delhi High Court entered the premises to take charge from Justice (retd.) Mukul Mudgal and his team. All employees were told to be present. None of the office bearers of the past were around. Justice Mudgal introduced Justice Sen to all present and formally handed the charge over to him.
This was not Justice Sen's first visit to Feroz Shah Kotla. He had played a couple of matches here and proudly admits he was a mean bowler too!
Sen, author of landmark SC judgments on NEET and guardianship rights of single mothers, didn't take too long to make his intentions known. Armed by a HC order that gave him more powers and a clearer brief than Justice Mudgal had, he conveyed in simple words that he was not to be fooled around with.
He was then taken around by Mudgal to be introduced to Delhi's one-day squad training on the ground, coach K.P. Bhaskar and assistant coach Amit Bhandari. Sen's first 'order' of the day was to assure the players and coaches full support. He enquired whether the team was facing any issues and was shocked to learn that dues of many players and coaches were pending as was the salary of the staff for the past two months.
Sen's first instructions to the staff was by way of a warning. He warned each staffer to not go and “work” at homes and offices of former officials who have been removed by the High Court. If anyone was found missing from their duties at the stadium, he would face dismissal, warned Sen. He also demanded list of fixtures to be played under the aegis of DDCA and wanted to know how the fixtures were assigned to Kotla and two other grounds “hired” for the same.
Sen takes over from Mudgal who had faced tremendous challenges from notorious DDCA officials but had ensured that cricket activities were run smoothly and transparently in DDCA. Mudgal took charge when DDCA coffers were empty and through organisation of a Test and one-day international he managed to generate a surplus of funds which were spent thereafter.
In a chat with THE WEEK, Justice Sen indicated he would get audits of the finances done and seek help of the Election Commission to vet electoral rolls to ensure there were no proxies involved. He revealed he would set up a committee of sports persons to run cricket related affairs in the interim and consult the Registrar of Companies to kick start the process of amending the constitution of DDCA. The Delhi HC order had scrapped proxy voting and ordered Sen to over see elections as per the SC- passed Lodha Committee recommendations. The HC had removed all existing office bearers and scrapped the notorious sports committee. It has also ordered an audit into DDCA annual statement of accounts for years 2012-2015. Excerpts from the interview:
How easy or difficult will it be for you to ensure necessary amendments are made to DDCA's constitution?
Here we are dealing with a case where court has ordered something. If SC has ordered something then it is the law of the land. So nobody can say this is illegal. Normally, the amendments will be put to vote...But here we'll have to see . I will have to talk to the Registrar of Companies, see what his advice is and then we will charter the course which is most appropriate. That is very important.
There are many complaints related to outstanding dues to staff, players, coaches.
Right now I have already heard lot of complaints that funding is not available to the players. I find it astounding that players have not been paid.
Justice Mudgal generated surplus under his watch. But that seems to have been frittered away some vested interests.
I am duty bound to look into all that, of course I will. It will be foremost in my mind—where has surplus gone and how is it it was generated only when Just Mudgal was handling it? Why was the previous administration unable to get it? Mismanagement of funds will be part of my report and I am sure Court will pass appropriate orders.
Proxies has been the bane of DDCA. How would you go about ensuring that its completely rid of this?
That is already gone. Fortunately I don't have to rule on it. The Court has already done away with it.
Creation and scrutiny of electoral rolls—it's so formidable that I will have to request some of my friends from EC to see if they will help out so that we have an electoral role which is correct. I don't know how many people are still alive on that roll. It's almost impossible to tell with these proxy systems. So its always better to have one person present to cast one vote.
The challenge becomes more difficult if you have an agenda. Whenever a judge sits to decide a case, there are always people trying to influence him. But we have all got into the habit of trying to look at facts and see how the law has to be applied to that. I will do that.
Plenty of people from old management wanted to contact me, I have not contacted them. All that will be done officially. I prefer not to see anybody who is a member of the club on one-on-one basis. I will have a general meeting. People can voice what they have to say out in the open.
Are you in touchg with the Committee of Administrators appointed by SC for BCCI?
Of course, we will get in touch. They are all people i know.
