The decks have been cleared at last for the conduct of the much-awaited elections in Fateh Maidan Club (FMC) with the High Court constituting a three-member committee to complete the election process by March 31.
While the Registrar of Societies would be the Chairman of the three-member committee, the other two members are M. Mohan Reddy and K. Sudhakar Rao, both long-standing members of the club.
It may be mentioned here that FMC, one of the renowned social clubs in the twin cities and housed in the heart of the city on the premises of L. B. Stadium, has been mired in numerous controversies and entangled in legal battle for a long time besides the regular elections to the House Sub-Committee getting postponed frequently. In fact, the elections scheduled to take place on February 9 were cancelled at the last hour consequent to a court stay order.
Dealing with a petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, Justice Ramesh Ranganathan, after perusing the petition and also hearing the arguments of the Counsels of the Respondents, including the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP), in his order passed on Tuesday observed that as per an earlier order of the court an election was required to be conducted in FMC to elect the Chairman and five members of the House Sub-Committee, who in turn, were entitled to nominate four other members.
Justice Ranganathan further observed that consequent to the apprehensions expressed by both the parties that the elections would not be held in a fair and transparent manner, the Counsels of either side were asked to furnish a list of candidates from among whom a committee could be constituted to conduct the elections.
Consequently, the petitioner filed three names and the 4th Respondent (J. Prithvi Reddy, the present Chairman of the House Sub-Committee) filed four names. Subsequently, the court nominated the three-member committee headed by the Registrar of Societies as Chairman.
Justice Ranganathan in his order further felt that since SAAP is entitled to have nine members in the executive council, it is but appropriate that the elections be held in the presence of the Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of SAAP. He further directed that the three-member committee should be decided on the procedure for conducting the elections in accordance with the bye-laws and the entire process, culminating in the declaration of results, should be completed by March 31, 2014 and a report should be submitted to the court by April 2. (NSS)
