HYDERABAD: Justice (retd) Nisar Ahmad Kakru, chairman of the Supreme Court-appointed supervisory committee for the Hyderabad Cricket Association, on Friday slammed panel member Vanka Pratap for trying to usurp powers of the committee and involving himself in the management of the HCA.
“...but having understood that the irresponsible assertion of Vanka Pratap, attributing failures of the supervisory committee to deliver, to my non-availability at Hyderabad, is in furtherance of a well-thought blame game," he stated in a 24-page letter written to the panel members.
“Surprisingly, Vanka Pratap issued an email 10.12.2022 slating a meeting on his own on 12.12.2022 and without my prior approval. It is issuance of the said notice that exposed the game plan of Vanka Pratap and that was to assume the power to regulate the meetings of the supervisory committee,” he stated and added, “Vanka Pratap or for that matter any other member has no power whatsoever to call a meeting except with my prior approval."
"I would like to place it on record that it was for the first time when I refused to attend the meeting, not by default but by my conscious and conscientious decision for several reason, one being that my attendance in the meeting would have been at the cost of HCA's exchequer and that would be tantamount to my complicity in the implementation of the stay of the election officer and revision of the voter list in utter violation of the order of the Supreme Court dated 22.08.2022,” Justice Kakru stated.
Countering the allegations of his absence, Justice Kakru described in detail what transpired since the first meeting of the panel, via video conference, on September 23. “...commencing from 23.09.2022 till 10.12.2011, I have never failed to attend any meeting of the supervisory committee, which is within the knowledge of Vanka Pratap, yet he furthered his misinformation vide his email dated 13.12.2022 which states, '...The supervisory committee has been waiting for your arrival at Hyderabad since reasonably long time... we feel that we should not wait anymore as many clubs are ready to come and meet with their grievances. We should be interacting with these clubs from December 16. Hence, it is sincerely urged to your kind self to join the committee's aforementioned deliberations from 16 December onwards in the best interest of stakeholders'," Kakru stated.
Justice Kakru stated that the committee had taken a conscious decision to hold meetings through video conference to cut down on the expenditure of the meetings from Rs 4 lakh to Rs 2 lakh besides other expenses. He stated that Pratap had asked him to come to Hyderabad and be present for at least three weeks to resolve the various issues. Kakru said he had written to Pratap stating that his three-week stay would cost the HCA more than Rs 30 lakh and the HCA would have to spend another Rs 20 lakh for each of the three members. "I had specifically conveyed to Vanka Pratap that it would be an unnecessary burden on the HCA as the committee was not required to meet on the cricket pitch of the Uppal stadium but he didn't budge, for the reasons best known to him,” he said.
Kakru also said the panel had not authorized Pratap to be involved in the management of the ODI match between India and New Zealand. "It transpires from the order that the Supreme Court has empowered the supervisory committee, to supervise the management of the affairs of the HCA but not to manage the affairs of the HCA. Authorizing a member of the committee to be part of the management of the HCA is patently in violation of the order supra. It is, therefore, unimaginable to have authorized Vanka Pratap to be part of the management of the ODI match to be held on January 18. More so, I am not a party to any decision of the committee authorizing Vanka Pratap to be part of the management of the HCA.”
Justice Kakru said he had been requesting for copies of the minutes of the meetings to annex the same along with the report to the SC. However, the minutes haven't been provided to him. He requested Pratap to forward copies of the minutes on or before January 16 as he will be submitting the report to the SC by January 20.
