Telangana High Court lets Hyderabad Cricket Association's expired apex council function in interim role

The court also allowed a committee to be formed under the Single Member Supervisory Committee. Its job is to monitor compliance with the recommendations that Justice L. Nageswara Rao made on 29 October 2023 and to oversee the association's pre-election process. The supervisory committee can either appoint a new chief executive or extend the existing chief executive's tenure for a limited transitional period. The bench was not named in the reports, and they do not give a date for the elections.

The uncertainty before the order

Before the order, the association's members had been asking what would happen when the council's term ended. A report from earlier in the week said that, under one reading of the rules, no apex council member, including the secretary, joint secretary and treasurer, could remain in office after the term ended, and that the association had no president. Elections had been due around 20 October, but there appeared to be no move to hold them. October 20 was a holiday, which added to the confusion.

The central question was whether the supervisory committee, headed by retired judge Justice P. Naveen Rao, would take full control or whether the apex council would continue. Former office-bearers listed two options: the council continues until the committee completes the election process, or the committee takes complete charge until the association is put in order. Until a decision, major decisions of the council had to be taken in consultation with the committee and with its approval. The court's order settles that question for now, in favour of the council continuing under supervision.

The demands for elections

Pressure for elections is building. On 29 October, former Test cricketers Arshad Ayub and Shivlal Yadav, with former official John Manoj, told a press conference at the Press Club of Hyderabad that they had asked Justice Naveen Rao for permission to hold a Special General Meeting and an Annual General Meeting soon, so that a new governing body can be elected. They urged that the special meeting be held on 15 November, and said a new body is essential for the smooth functioning of the association. The annual meeting was originally due on 21 June but could not be held because the necessary preliminary procedures were not completed.

Separately, 106 affiliated members wrote to the association's secretary, M. Jeevan Reddy, on 17 October asking for a special general meeting with a single agenda item, an amendment of the rules, regulations and bye-laws, which could make elections possible. More than 200 affiliated members are waiting for the supervisory committee's next move.

The association has been under the High Court's watch since July 2025, when it appointed the retired judge to supervise it. In September 2025 the court also ordered the defreezing of the association's bank account, which the state's Crime Investigation Department had frozen in July 2025 in connection with a case it registered, and the court noted that the association had not been made an accused. The association is due to host an India-Zimbabwe one-day international in January, and members hope that the administrative position will improve before then.

The next steps are the verification of members, the decision on a special general meeting and the announcement of an election schedule. Until then, the council functions under supervision, and the real decisions on the election process rest with the committee and the court.