DDCA Apex Council rejects Ombudsman's order to reinstate Rajat Sharma as president

New Delhi: The Apex council of the Delhi & Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) on Tuesday put up a united stand, rejecting ombudsman Justice (Retd) Badar Durrez Ahmed's order which allowed senior journalist Rajat Sharma to continue in his role as DDCA president.

Sharma had resigned from his post on Saturday, citing his inability to continue amidst "various pulls and pressures".

File image of Rajat Sharma. Sachin Gokhale/ Firstpost

However, the DDCA ombudsman on Sunday rejected Sharma's resignation, asking him to assume office as president and also fixed 27 November to formally hear the matter.

The decision didn't go down well with the Apex Council with nine out of 15 members on Tuesday addressing a joint presser, rejecting the Ombudsman's role and also highlighting the issues affecting the running of the sport in DDCA.

"We, the following members of the Apex Council, are of the opinion that you cannot rejoin the office as the president of DDCA and the mail stating your rejoining is null and void," the members of Apex council said in a letter to Sharma.

"A clear reading of section 168 (1) of the Companies Act, 2013 has made it clear that the resignation by a Director will be effective once served to the Company. There is no provision mentioned in the companies act 2013 to withdraw the resignation once submitted to the company."

The council also questioned the term of the Ombudsman.

"... the term of the ombudsman was for one year i.e. from 30 June 2018 to 29 June 2019 and can only be extended in AGM as per Article of Association," another letter, which was signed by the disgruntled members, said.

"Any action/decision taken by Hon'ble Ombudsman after 30 June 2019 is null and void."

After Sharma resigned, CEO Ravi Chopra and the two-member Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) comprising Sunil Valson and Yashpal Sharma also tendered their resignation.

However, after Ahmed's directive, CEO Chopra rejoined office on Monday, according to the council.

"According to the Ombudsman's order, everything that happened before 12 November stays. Now the CEO resigned on 4 November and it was accepted by the president then but now after the Ombudsman order, the CEO came with force to rejoin his office and we objected to it," said Sanjay Bharadwaj, one of the directors of the Apex Council.

The council members also questioned the lack of transparency in the working of the President and his team, regarding appointment of senior executives, the formation of CAC for 2018-19 and 2019-20 and negotiations for IPL contracts.

"We would like to change the CAC as Delhi have been losing a lot of matches. They have been interfering in selection. CAC's job is to pick the selectors not select players," Bharadwaj said.

The nine dissident members of the Council include six director — SN Sharma, Renu Khanna, Sanjay Bharadwaj, Alok Mittal, Apurv Jain, Nitin Gupta, Vice-President Rakesh Bansa, secretary Vinod Tihara and Joint Secretary Ranjan Manchanda.

Ravinder Manchanda, who is a member of the advisory council of DDCA, was also present.