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Bedi seeks end to proxy voting in DDCA

Onkar Singh

Former India cricket captain Bishen Singh Bedi is again in the news. This time for dashing off a letter to Arun Jaitley, the minister of state for information and broadcasting.

Bedi has requested Jaitley, who is also the president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association, to put an end to the proxy system of voting prevalent in the DDCA. Amongst those who have endorsed the missive are Manoj Prabhakar, Madan Lal, Surinder Khanna, Manmohan Sood, (all former Test cricketers), Atul Vasan, Vivek Razdan and Sunil Dev (sports secretary, DDCA).

"Over 700 members - out of a total strength of 3,500 - of the club have signed the letter. We have given several instances to the minister where leading clubs, like Delhi Gymkhana, Roshanara Club, Delhi Bar Association of the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court, National Sports Club, have all abolished voting by proxy. Even the Companies Act envisages a proxy-free voting in cases of companies without share capital and allows it only if it is in the Articles," said Bedi.

The main contention of the promoters of the letter is that through proxy system some individuals are virtually holding the club to ransom.

"You may not be aware, Sir, that this proxy system is helping some members to hold sway over this association," the letter said.

"We have, Sir, already filed a petition u/s 397, 398 of the Companies Act for abolition of proxy and transparency in the election of the members. Through proxy, the holder of proxy elects 15 persons against the wishes of the members. As an eminent lawyer you will please agree that the pernicious practice of voting by proxy should be abolished as early as possible in a sports organisation like DDCA, as none of the other sports bodies/federations have voting by proxy in their Articles."

This is not the first time that members of the DDCA have raised their voice against the proxy system of voting. Bedi had led a similar attempt almost a decade back.

"But the previous attempts failed. This is our first legal attempt and we hope we will succeed," he said optimistically.