HC seeks judges' names for supervising Mohun Bagan poll

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday asked one of the two feuding groups of the Mohun Bagan club to suggest names of three retired judges to supervise the election to the 129-year-old institution at the earliest.

The two groups are loyal respectively to Mohun Bagan president Swapan Sadhan Bose and general secretary Anjan Mitra, who had administered the club together but fell apart about a year ago.

Justice Shekhar Bobby Saraf asked the counsel for Madan Mohan Dutta, who is a club executive member belonging to the group led by Anjan Mitra, to come with the names tomorrow, when the court will take up the matter for hearing again.

Senior counsel Jayanta Mitra representing Bose, submitted to the court that many clubs including arch rival East Bengal have formed their football teams for the coming season but Mohun Bagan has not been able to do so owing to the feud between the two groups.

The court also suggested that the two groups sit together and decide on a person to hold the elections at the earliest, preferably by August.

Mahesh Tekriwal, a former executive member from Bose's group, had moved the high court praying for appointment of a special officer for conducting the election at the club.

Dutta opposed the plea and sought its rejection claiming that Mohun Bagan is a private club having its own constitution and that there has been no allegation of any serious mismanagement for the court to interfere. He claimed that the club executive can hold the election by itself. It was stated before the court that 12 members of the 20-member executive of the club, including Tekriwal had resigned on April 26. At present there are eight functioning executive members in the iconic club.