As many as 21 Member State Golf Associations representing the majority of the membership assembled at the Annual General Meeting of the Indian Golf Union, held today at the premises of the Indian Olympic Association as per the schedule announced on 14th November 2024.
The vitiation of conditions for a free and fair conduct of the AGM, due to several acts of Mr Brijender Singh, President of IGU, to interfere with the elections was cited as the reason for requests for change.
The AGM held at IOA Bhavan adopted the election results of the IGU declared by originally appointed Returning Officer, Justice (Retd) OP Garg. Among those who were elected unopposed were Harish Shetty as President, Dhiraj Seth as Vice President, BK Repswal as Secretary and Manoj Joshi as Treasurer alongwith nine council members, all elected unopposed.
Speaking to the media at the press conference convened after the AGM, Harish Shetty highlighted that the results of the election were the outcome of the process conducted in a free and fair manner by Justice OP Garg.
BK Repswal highlighted the repeated attempts by the erstwhile President, Brijinder Singh, to interfere with the election process after they were set in motion.
This included appointing additional returning officers without authority and legal basis, when Justice Garg had not resigned and the Justice having reiterated that he is in control of the election process.
The second returning officer resigned after learning that the Justice Garg had not in fact resigned, Repeatedly tampering with the electoral roll of eligible State Golf Associations to create an electoral roll favourable to him. This included disqualifying 5 states at the first stage, through a false report to Justice Garg which was reversed by the Returning Officer.
Thereafter, several other states and their representatives were disqualified by Brijinder Singh on specious grounds and ignoring all principles of natural justices to further curtail the electoral roll in his favour. It was very unfortunate that Brijinder Singh had ignored all principles of natural justice , guidance from the Indian Olympic Association in his search to retain his position.
Harish Shetty highlighted that Justice Garg the legally appointed returning officer had conducted the election process, systematically and smoothly without allowing any disqualification attempts and the results are a true reflection of the wishes of the majority in the general body of the Indian Golf Union.
Any other so called election results declared for the Indian Golf Union has no legal sanctity since they were arising from a blatant and illegal interference with the elections process. It is pertinent to note that the NSDC requires two thirds membership of the SGA’s to be able to qualify as the NSF which the very electoral college list published by Mr Singh does not have, with only 19 members out of 21, 8 of whom have declined to support and have boycotted the AGM at the IHC.
With 21 SGAs supporting, the natural claim to be the official NSF must rest with this body.
