The Madras High Court on Tuesday set aside the unopposed election of Ajay Patel, Vipnesh Bhardwaj, Bharat Singh Chauhan, Arun Singh and Naresh Sharma as the president, vice-president, secretary, joint secretary and treasurer of All India Chess Federation (AICF) and ordered conduct of fresh elections by convening a special general body meeting.
Justices M.M. Sundresh and Krishnan Ramasamy passed the order on a clarification petition filed by P.S. Venketrama Raja who pointed out that the nominations filed by him and his team were rejected and the rival group was declared elected unopposed on February 11 due to some misconception in understanding an order passed by the Division Bench on February 3.
Making it clear that the intention of the court was to ensure a contested election, the judges requested retired Supreme Court judge F.M. Ibrahim Kalifulla, who had been appointed as the Returning Officer by the Bench, to conduct the entire election process afresh after sending notices to all members of the federation for convening the special general body meeting.
“All candidates shall file nominations only in person strictly as per the National Sports Development Code of 2011,” the judges clarified after finding that the nominations of Raja and his team had been rejected precisely on the ground that they had not filed their nominations in person though they could not do so due to circumstances revolving around the previous court order.
To challenge order
The order is set to be challenged by Bharat Singh and others.
“We are awaiting the copy of the order. We will move the Supreme Court against the order,” said Chauhan.
