The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday reserved its order on the petition questioning the rejection of nomination papers of K.N. Shanth Kumar, a director of The Printers (Mysore) Private Ltd., who is contesting for the post of the president of the managing committee of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA).
Justice Suraj Govindaraj reserved the verdict after hearing the arguments on behalf of Mr. Shanth Kumar, the KSCA, the Electoral Officer (EO), and the other contestants for the post of president – former cricket players B.K. Venkatesh Prasad and Kalpana Venkatachar.
Earlier, the court viewed recording of the scrutiny proceedings undertaken by the EO on November 24 to ascertain the argument made on behalf of Mr. Kumar that the arrears of ₹200, due from Deccan Herald and Prajavani (DHPV) Sports Club, which has an institution membership with the KSCA and represented by Mr. Kumar, was already paid when the nomination papers were taken up for scrutiny, and details of payment made was informed to the EO.
No list of defaulters
Meanwhile, the KSCA pointed out that it had not prepared a list of members who have defaulted in payment of membership and hence the members could not be informed about arrears in payment towards membership fee before commencement of election process as per the by-law, which has a provision for not allowing a member to caste vote in the elections and contest elections in case of any arrears.
The court was also informed that messages would be sent through mobile phone for payment of membership fee for the individual life members, but no such messaging facility was there in case of institutional membership.
EO’s information
On the other hand, it was informed to the court on behalf of the EO that the nomination papers of the candidates for the post of president was deferred for want of necessary records from the KSCA on the candidates, and hence the scrutiny of nomination papers for other posts were taken up. When the scrutiny of nomination papers for the post of president were taken up the KSCA record did contain information about payment of arrears made on behalf of the DHPV Sports Club.
Published – November 27, 2025 09:40 pm IST
