Dispose of plaints against GCA in 6 months: HC to govt

Panaji: In a petition filed by a lifetime member of the Goa Cricket Association (GCA), Mahesh Chavan, contending serious allegations of misappropriation of funds by the GCA, Bombay high court directed the registrar of societies to look into complaints pending before him and dispose of them within a span of six months.The HC directed the registrar of societies to look into all other similar complaints pending before him “and, if necessary, club all the complaints together so as to expedite the disposal of the proceedings. However, independent notices with regard to all the complaints shall be issued to all the affected parties, and they should be heard before passing any effective order,” the high court stated, directing that the process be completed within six months of receipt of the order.The petition by Mahesh Chavan stated that despite repeated complaints before the registrar, no action was taken to investigate the matter. The high court stated that, based on Chavan’s complaint, a show cause notice was already issued and the date of appearance was fixed on Feb 27, and therefore it was not correct to say that no action was taken by the registrar.Advocate Rohit Bras De Sa, representing Chavan, stated that out of several complaints pending before the registrar, action was taken only in respect of one complaint, and that too without any clarity on the timeline by which the process will be completed, and sought directions from the high court.

“We make it clear that since the writ petition was disposed of at the stage of admission, without serving notices to the private respondents, no opinion whatsoever was expressed by us on the merits of the claim made in this writ petition,” the high court division bench comprising Justices Suman Shyam and Amit S Jamsandekar observed, and added that the respondents shall be at liberty to raise all objections, as may be permissible under the law, before the registrar of societies.