The Bombay high court has directed the Maharashtra government to appoint an officer of the rank of secretary to probe into alleged illegalities conducted by Bhiwandi-Nizampur City Municipal Corporation in holding the ‘Mayor’s Cup’ cricket tournament in January this year.
Hearing a petition last week, a bench comprising Justices A.R. Joshi and A.S. Oka asked the principal secretary of the urban development department to appoint any secretary of the state government to hold a fact-finding inquiry into alleged wrongdoings by the civic body in holding the tournament.
“In the fact-finding inquiry, responsibility, if any, shall be fixed for illegal expenditure incurred by the municipal corporation. The officer shall also ascertain whether the said club has collected any entry fee or any other amount from the participating teams,” the judges noted.
The bench further directed the inquiry officer to submit a report on the outcome of the inquiry to the court in a sealed cover by July. The court also directed that this petition shall be listed on its board under the caption of “Directions” on August 5 for further hearing. The bench noted that it was ordering the probe because it was of a prima facie view that irregularities had been committed and hence accountability should be fixed on the concerned officers.
On going through the affidavit filed by the municipal commissioner, the court observed that “right from inception, complete illegality has been committed by the corporation as far as holding of the event during 2013 is concerned”.
“Without any authority, the tournament was allowed to be conducted by ‘The Challenge Sports club’. Also, without any legal authority, a sum of `24.9 lakh was spent from the funds of the municipal corporation. The corporation has not bothered to verify whether the club unauthorisedly collected entry fees of `25,000 from every team,” the judges said.