HC restores Vigilance cases against former ex-Kerala Cricket Association office bearers

Kochi, Oct 31 (IANS) In a major setback for the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA), the Kerala High Court on Friday restored vigilance cases against its former office-bearers over alleged irregularities in land deals for constructing cricket stadiums at Edakochi and Thodupuzha.

A Division Bench comprising Justice A.K. Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice Jobin Sebastian set aside a 2015 ruling of a Single Bench that had quashed the cases, holding that the KCA and its officials did not fall within the ambit of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (PC Act).

“The upshot of the above discussions is that we allow these appeals by setting aside the impugned judgment of the learned single judge and dismiss the writ petitions as devoid of merit,” the Bench said in its order delivered in open court.

The vigilance probe had been initiated following private complaints in 2013 alleging corruption in the KCA’s purchase of land to build international-standard cricket stadiums at Edakochi and Thodupuzha.

Acting on these complaints, the Vigilance Court had directed registration of FIRs against the then KCA President T.C. Mathew and other office-bearers.

The accused then moved the High Court, contending that the KCA, being an autonomous sports body affiliated to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), was not a "public office" and its officials could not be prosecuted as "public servants".

Accepting this contention, the Single Bench in 2015 had quashed the vigilance proceedings, ruling that the association’s activities lacked a public element since it had not received government funding.

It held that the act of purchasing land did not, by itself, constitute a public duty, and that a public element would arise only once the stadium was built and opened for public use.

Disagreeing with this view, the Division Bench observed that the KCA's functions, by their nature and scale, fell within the purview of the PC Act, enabling the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau to continue its investigation.

--IANS

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