AICF election: Madras High Court reserves orders

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Thursday reserved its orders on the appeal filed by the PR Venketrama Raja faction against the rejection of their nomination papers filed for the All India Chess Federation (AICF) election by the returning officer.

According to sources in the Raja camp, their counsel sought that the nomination papers be accepted and the election for electing AICF office-bearers for 2020-2023 should be held in Hyderabad on February 23 as decided earlier.

The Raja camp on Wednesday filed an appeal against the returning officer Justice Fakkir Mohammed Ibrahim Kalifulla's order in the High Court.

On Tuesday, the court appointed returning Officer Justice Kalifulla declared five people as elected unopposed. They were Ajay H Patel as President, Bharat Singh Chauhan as the Secretary, Naresh Sharma as Treasurer, M Arun Singh as Joint Secretary and Vipnesh Bharadwaj as Vice President.

In his order, Justice Kalifulla also said that the proposed election scheduled on February 23 in Hyderabad cannot take place.

Earlier, Justice Kalifulla had rejected the nomination forms of 23 contestants — including that of incumbent President Venketrama Raja and several others — as they did not file their nominations in person as specified in para 6.4 of the National Sports Development Code.

The AICF is split into two factions — one headed by Raja and the other by Chauhan. They have been at loggerheads over various issues.