Bombay High Court dismisses Kiran Powar’s appeal, former U19 skipper to remain banned from MCA

The former U-19 skipper of the Indian team, Kiran Powar has been banned from playing cricket for a year and also has been removed from the Mumbai Cricket Association Council. A complaint was filed against his name by Deepan Mistry alleging Powar of multiple conflicts of interest.

Despite being an Apex Council Member of the Mumbai Cricket Association, Powar was said to be a coach at Goregaon Sports Club. Meanwhile, his brother was appointed as the coach for the Mumbai Senior Men’s Cricket team and that’s where the Ethics Officer found Powar to be guilty.

Following the development, the officer banned Powar from further involvement in Mumbai Cricket Association and that’s what didn’t go down well with the 46-year-old. Powar took the case to the Bombay High Court where his advocate Sneha Phene argued that the cricketer was not required to disclose any of the information and also mentioned that there was no conflict of interest on his part.

Now, as per the rules set by the Mumbai Cricket Association, the appointment of any personnel including the head coach or any support staff was strictly decided by the Cricket Improvement Committee (CIC). Thus Phene claimed that the petitioner had no role in the abovementioned case.

Phene took a dig at Ethics Officer

According to News18, Phene also took a dig at the Ethics officer and mentioned Rule number 39 of the constitution stating that the association can only appoint an Ethics officer during an Annual General Meeting (AGM). However, since this time the Ethics Officer wasn’t hired during the meeting, his order regarding the same shouldn’t hold any value.

However, Advocate A.S. Khandeparkar for MCA corrected Powar and explained that it’s not required for the Ethics officer to be hired only during the AGM meeting.

Meanwhile, the High Court taking the side of the MCA mentioned the importance of the involvement of an Ethics officer in the current scenario before dismissing the case, leaving Powar guilty of multiple conflicts of interest.

“Moreover, being a member of the Apex Council, a person would be in a position of influence in matters of selection as the CIC has to report its recommendation to the Apex Council. In view of the aforesaid facts, it cannot be said that the decision arrived at by the Ethics Officer cum Ombudsman is perverse for this court to interfere,” the High Court Judge said.