Court orders clear cloud of uncertainty

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, OCT. 9. It took two court orders, in the space of 12 days, to clear the cloud of uncertainty hovering over the status and the validity of the much-maligned All India Chess Federation (AICF) elections.

After being in the eye of the storm for precisely a month, the AICF can now set its house in order - in a civilised manner - thanks to the directions given by Justice G. Sivarajan of the Kerala High Court and the Delhi Civil Judge, Mr. Praveen Kumar.

It may be recalled that on September 1, acrimonious scenes, at the outset of the annual general body meeting to elect the office-bearers of the AICF at Hotel Inter-Continental here, led to its ``cancellation.''

Undeterred, one group went ahead with the voting process and claimed to be the `real' AICF. The result was that at the end of the day, there were two AICFs, two sets of office- bearers and plenty of confusion.

Chess players, especially those of promise, and chess lovers all over the country were seeking answers to many obvious questions. How long will this stand-off continue ? Will there be a compromise between the two AICFs ? Should the warring bodies get entangled in a long-winding legal battle, what will be the fate of the players?

All these and many more questions were making the rounds but none had the answers. The first step towards a viable solution came on September 19 when Justice G. Sivarajan directed the Secretary (Sports), Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and the AICF to ``fix the general body meeting of the federation on 13 October, 2001 strictly in compliance with rules.''

Thereafter on October 1, the court of Mr. Praveen Kumar dismissed the application filed by Mr. Dhiraj Raghuvanshi (who got himself `elected' as the Secretary of the AICF on September 1) for grant of injunction apart from seeking the court's help to assume charge of the federation and its assets.

These two judgements have removed the ambiguities that arose following the commotion witnessed on September 1. As things stand, Kolkata's Taj Bengal Hotel has been chosen as the venue to host AICF's AGM on October 13 and elect the office-bearers for the 2001-2005 term.

Things began moving when Justice Sivarajan gave his judgement on a petition, filed by Mr. V.R. Bobba, secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Chess Association, pleading that the Sports Ministry and the AICF be directed to conduct elections of the AICF after inviting nominations and complying with the procedural formalities in a properly constituted and convened AGM at Kochi, Kozhikode or in Chennai.

In addition to fixing the new date to hold the elections, leaving the choice of venue to the federation and allowing the possible use of ``police assistance'' in case of any ``obstruction'' (during the course of the meeting), the court also directed the Government to depute Mr. M.P. Ganesh, Executive Director (Teams Wing), Sports Authority of India, New Delhi or any other nominee as observer for overseeing the proper conduct of the meeting.

It is relevant to note that the Union Government had, at the request of the AICF, nominated Mr. Ganesh as its observer for the September 1 AGM as well. In fact, it was his report to Mr. S.S. Rana (Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Sports) that played its part before the Civil Judge, Mr. Praveen Kumar decided the fate of the application filed by Mr. Raghuvanshi.

Even as it was argued that the AICF was an autonomous body and its constitution did not provide for any role for the Government observer, the judge was of the opinion that the Government observer was an independent person and ``the report submitted by him cannot be ignored.''

In fact the court, in its order, reproduced the relevant portion of Mr. Ganesh's report: ``The proceedings of the meeting could not take place due to interruption by the participants...Even the welcome address which was 1. (first) item of the agenda could not take place due to violent behaviour of certain participants (who) constrained the President to announce the postponement of the meeting and to leave the venue.

``In view of the above it would be necessary that the directions are issued to the AICF to announce the next meeting of the general body sufficiently in advance and a competent returning officer to be nominated. We may also request the AICF to ensure strict adherence to procedure and to maintain discipline during the meeting.''

The court, while dismissing the application, stated that ``it is a well-settled principle of law that in order to claim relief of injunction, the plaintiff has to prove three essential ingredients in his favour, namely, (1) prima facie case, (2) balance of convenience and (3) irreparable loss and injury. The absence of any of these three ingredients must entail the rejection of the application of the plaintiff.''

The court was of the view that the plaintiff ``has not been able to show any prima-facie case in its favour and the balance of convenience also lies in favour of not granting the injunction.''

Mr. Raghuvanshi as well as one of the Vice-Presidents of the Delhi Chess Association, Mr. R.K. Singh, a senior IPS officer `elected' as the AICF President on September 1, were not available for their comments.

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