The High Court of Karnataka on Wednesday asked the Electoral Officer (EO), who is in charge of holding elections to various posts of the managing committee of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), not to announce the list of contesting candidates with respect to the post of president till further orders. The list of contesting candidates was required to be announced by 5 p.m. on November 26 as per calender of elections fixed by the court.
Justice Suraj Govindaraj passed the interim order on a petition filed by K.N. Shanth Kumar, director of The Printers (Mysore) Private Ltd., (which publishes Kannada daily Prajavani and English daily Deccan Herald), who has questioned the rejection of his nomination paper for the post of president of the KSCA.
The nomination paper was rejected for the reason that there were arrears of ₹200 from Deccan Herald and Prajavani Sports Club, which has an institution membership with the KSCA, represented by Mr. Kumar.
The court said that it wants to ascertain whether the institution member, namely Deccan Herald and Prajavani Sports Club, has made the payment of arrears prior to scrutiny being complete and rejection of the nomination of the petitioner, and whether the same has been brought to the notice of the EO, as it was contended on behalf of the petitioner that arrears was paid on November 24, the day of scrutiny of nomination papers, but before the actual scrutiny of the nomination papers.
Video recording
To ascertain the claim of the petitioner, the court directed the EO and the KSCA to produce on November 27, the next date of hearing on the petition, the video recording of the scrutiny proceedings and a time stamped printout of the receipt of payment of arrears.
Senior advocate S.S. Nanaganand, appearing for Mr. Kumar, told the court that KSCA’s norms state that the member will not be allowed to contest as long as there are arrears. When the application was taken up for scrutiny, the petitioner had already made the payment and it was informed to the EO but the same was ignored.
However, senior advocate Prabhuling K. Navadgi, appearing for cricket Venkatesh Prasad, who is also contesting for the post of president, has contended that the petition challenging the rejection of the nomination paper is not maintainable at present as election process has already commenced and the court cannot interfere in the election process at this stage.
Published – November 26, 2025 09:02 pm IST
