Justice Mukul Mudgal to oversee DDCA's World T 20 matches: HC

New Delhi: DDCA will hold matches of the upcoming T20 world cup under the supervision of Justice (Retd) Mukul Mudgal whose intervention has helped resolving several contentious issues between the cricket body and others, Delhi High Court said on Monday.

The high court, however, made it clear that South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) will grant occupancy certificate to DDCA for conducting the T20 matches only if the cricketing body gets all requisite clearances from concerned authorities.

A bench of justices S Muralidhar and Vibhu Bakhru said, "We will continue with the same arrangement under Justice Mudgal. Without Justice Mudgal, nothing would have been done and you all would have kept fighting with each other."

"Considering that there will be at least seven matches as part of the world T20 which will be held at Ferozshah Kotla stadium, we request Justice Mudgal to oversee the matches in terms of the court's order dated November 18 and December 18 last year," the bench added.

It also asked Mudgal to ensure that functioning of Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) be streamlined.

"Without Justice Mudgal, the present improvement would not have been possible," it said and asked DDCA to cooperate with him to ensure that his recommendations made earlier to the court were followed.

The bench also asked Justice Mudgal to file a compliance report on March 3, ahead of the ICC T20 world cup 2016 matches scheduled to begin from March 8.

The court's direction came on the plea of DDCA, which had moved the court against denial of permission by SMCD to hold match.

The High Court on November 18 last year had paved the way for DDCA to hold the 4th India-South Africa test match and appointed Mudgal to oversee the affairs of the match. It had asked DDCA to get completion certificate from SDMC by March 31 to hold matches in furture.

It had then asked him to submit his report with regard to the status of obtaining requisite clearances or other compliances before March 31.

During the hearing, advocate Nitin Mishra submitted the status report prepared by Justice Mudgal on the steps taken by DDCA towards obtaining the clearances.

Advocate Sangram Patnaik, appearing for DDCA, submitted that they had received most of the clearances from the concerned authorities and would get the remaining certificates within a week so that they can hold T20 world cup matches.

In the report, Justice Mudgal said SDMC has pointed out 60 deviations from the original plan and DDCA had rectified a major portion of them while some of the issues were in the final stages of rectification.

"DDCA has given an assurance that occupancy certificate from SDMC will be issued in another week," it said.

The report said no objection certificates have been issued by Delhi Fire Services, electrical inspector and L&DO while the required certificate for structural engineering design has also been issued.

Regarding the DUAC's certificate, the report said public art work has been initiated and its contract has been awarded to an artist recommended by the commission.

"Work is in progress and NoC will be issued as soon as DDCA intimates to DUAC that the art work has been completed.

DUAC has also issued a letter dated February 5, 2016 stating the same," the report said.

It said that DDCA has also initiated the process of seeking temporary permissions from concerned departments for conducting the T20 matches and as per the assurances, the same would be granted before the world cup matches.

"DDCA is taking earnest steps for seeking permanent clearances/permissions from various departments and had assured that the permissions would be granted within a week," the report said.

The issue dates back to 2011 when DDCA filed a petition challenging a property tax assessment made by the MCD with regard to the stadium. The matter is still pending in the high court.

Thereafter, prior to holding a match at the stadium, the DDCA would move an application for provisional occupancy certificate as it did not have a completion certificate from MCD, for which an updated property tax return is also required besides no objection certificates from various agencies.