Pune: The Jharkhand Tennis Association (JTA) has filed an intervening application in the Delhi High Court against the All India Tennis Association’s decision to promote Goa and Rajasthan from associate to affiliate membership with voting rights during the Annual General Meeting on September 30.
Parikh indeed announced on Sunday (November 1) his decision to contest for president in alliance with the legendary Leander Paes, who currently heads the Bengal association and will stand for vice president.
The JTA said that it was not against conferring affiliate membership on Goa and Rajasthan itself, but objected to the manner in which was done and that the two state units’ voting rights must be suspended until the matter is adjudicated upon by the court. Chintan Parikh, the AITA interim president, however, said that denying the two associations their voting rights would have been “unfair”. Given that the election process was already underway and that Parikh was a prospective candidate, the decision without prior notice raised concerns over fairness of the election process, the JTA said in its application. Parikh said that Goa and Rajasthan had completed the mandatory two-year period of associateship to be eligible for affiliate membership and the decision to promote them was approved unanimously by the General Body. They sent us an application to be come full state affiliates,” Parikh said in a statement to The Times of India.
In its appeal, the JTA has argued that the matter was not listed on the agenda for the AGM, which was originally supposed to be an Extraordinary General Meeting, and the promotion of Goa and Rajasthan added four votes — two votes for each association — to the electoral college. “Rajasthan and Goa have completed their mandatory period of two years as associated Affiliates.