Justice James Bovell-Drakes granted an injunction on Wednesday barring Bissondyal Singh and members of his faction of the Demerara Cricket Board (DCB) from acting as president and performing any duties of the Board pending the hearing of a matter on February 14.
The judge ordered on February 9 that Singh and his executive be restrained from “acting, operating, performing, functioning and or discharging in any manner whatsoever any of the functions, duties, and or obligations of or belonging to the DCB and also from holding themselves out whether individually as Office Bearers of the DCB and or jointly as the Executive Committee of the said DCB until the hearing and determination of a summons returnable for the 14th day of February, 20111, at 9:15 a.m.”.
The injunction was applied for by Krishnchand Mangal through his Attorney Roysdale Forde on behalf of the Raj Singh faction of the DCB on Tuesday. Mangal is the secretary of the Raj Singh faction.
The defendants named by Mangal are Bissoondyal Singh, Roger Harper, Pretipaul Jaigobin, Davteerth Anandjit, Samaroo Jailall, Edward Richmond, Nigel Bissu, Neil Barry, Shawn Massiah, Manoj Narayan, Claude Raphael and Ronald Williams.
The move by this faction will therefore prolong the legal conundrum that has enveloped the DCB after both factions held separate elections on January 22 at the Lusignan and Wales Community Centres.
In the aftermath both sides had argued they were the legitimate body to carry out the mandate of the DCB. The Bissoondyal Singh faction had met with Sport Minister Dr. Frank Anthony, named sub-committees and registered with the Friendly Society.
This prompted Mangal to outline in court documents that a declaration be made that the Annual General Meeting (AGM) that was held on January 22 at Wales was lawful and in accordance with the Constitution of the DCB. He also asked that a declaration be made that the election of office bearers at the Wales AGM was also in compliance with the constitution of the Board.
On the other hand, in his claims he stated that the election of the defendants and the AGM be declared as unauthorised and therefore should be “null, void and of no legal effect”.
Further, in Mangal’s affidavit he stated that the actions by the defendants to appoint sub-committees and “assessing unlawfully the authority of the DCB” would harm the image of the Board and bring the game into disrepute. He also said that prior to the order that was made by acting Chief Justice Ian Chang last month, the “management, suspension, promotion and organisation of the game” was at a “standstill”, claiming that there were no competitions last year.
“…That should the defendants be permitted to operate as the lawfully elected executive of the DCB it would cause substantial harm and injury to the said cricket board.
“That I am also advised by Mr. Roysdale A. Forde, Attorney-at-Law and verily believe that I have a good cause of action against the defendants,” the affidavit read.
Meanwhile, in the lead up to Wednesday’s events Bissondyal Singh had said that he was responsible for deciding where and when elections would have been held while the Raj Singh group had said that at the January 17 meeting, which was ordered by the Chief Justice, the majority of the executives agreed to the resolution that was read to have the elections held at Wales.
On January 18, the Raj Singh faction had called a press conference to announce that the elections were going to be held at Wales, which was contrary to what was reported after the Special General Meeting the day before. On the day of that press conference the Bissoondyal Singh faction had successfully sought another injunction where Chief Justice Chang prohibited the then secretary Raj Singh from convening any meeting that was not sanctioned by the president.
