DDCA should not be allowed to hold India-South Africa test match: Azad tells Delhi HC

New Delhi: Former Indian cricketer Kirti Azad told Delhi High Court on Tuesday that DDCA should not be allowed to hold the test match between India-South Africa at Ferozshah Kotla stadium, alleging that the cricketing body was an “illegal squatter”. The allegation was made by Azad, a BJP MP from Darbhanga, before a bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva which was hearing a plea of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) seeking a direction to South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) to issue a provisional occupancy certificate (POC) to hold the test at Ferozshah Kotla stadium. [caption id=“attachment_2506714” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  India and South Africa in action. AFP[/caption] While the match is scheduled to be held from December 3 to December 7, DDCA has sought POC from December 1 to 10. Azad also alleged that a lot of “bungling of finances” has taken place at DDCA which was being investigated by the CBI and Registrar of Companies. He also alleged that of the around Rs 40 crore the association gets for spending on cricketing activities, only about Rs seven crore was used for the purpose and urged the court not to allow DDCA to hold the game. DDCA has moved the court for the interim relief as the SDMC yesterday rejected their application for a no-objection certificate or POC to hold the match. Apart from Azad, SDMC, represented by advocate Gaurang Kanth, also opposed DDCA’s plea saying it has not obtained a completion certificate from the municipal body as the association has not received clearances from the Delhi Urban Arts Commission (DUAC), Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) nor NOC from Land and Development (L&DO). Kanth told the court that there was no provision under the law to issue a POC and said DDCA had got an interim relief from the court 13 times in the past, despite not making any effort to obtain the requisite clearances. The court, however, questioned how SDMC sanctioned construction of the stadium if it had received no NOC from L&DO. To this, Kanth said he would tomorrow bring the entire file on how the sanction was given. Thereafter, the court listed the matter for hearing on Wednesday. Kanth also said the court had in 2011 directed DDCA to obtain the completion certificate within six months, but till date nothing has been done. Meanwhile, on the issue of dues payable by it, DDCA said it has already paid Rs 2.25 crore this year and an additional Rs one crore would be paid by March 31, 2016. In April this year, the court had paved the way for DDCA to hold IPL matches between April 12 to May 1 at the Ferozeshah Kotla grounds by asking SDMC to issue a POC to the association. DDCA was given a similar relief by the court on September 30 last year to hold a one-day match between India and West Indies at the stadium on October 11, 2015. PTI