The Karnataka High Court Thursday reserved its judgment with regard to a petition by K N Shanth Kumar against the rejection of his nomination papers for the post of president of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA). The order was reserved by a bench consisting of Justice Suraj Govindaraj.
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Kumar, a former editor of the Deccan Herald and Prajavani, is a director of their holding company, The Printers (Mysore) Pvt Ltd. Among the other contestants for the post is former international cricketer B K Venkatesh Prasad.
As previously reported by The Indian Express, the Karnataka High Court had on November 22 set December 7 as the date for the elections to the managing committee of the KSCA. Two days later, Kumar’s nomination papers were rejected on the grounds of alleged KSCA arrears of Rs 200. In this regard, Kumar had approached the Karnataka High Court seeking a writ to quash the said order of the Electoral Officer.
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In response to a query posed by the court on whether Kumar should have been informed of the alleged arrears, it was stated by a counsel that while there was a facility for messages to be sent to permanent life members of the KSCA, this did not exist in the case of institutional members (in this case, through the Deccan Herald Prajavani Sports Club).
Kumar’s counsel also argued that, as per Supreme Court precedent, it was sufficient if the payment was made on the day the Electoral Officer examined the nomination papers.
The court is likely to pronounce its order in the matter early next week.