HC stopped you from committing bigger fraud: Supreme Court refuses to lift stay on Maharashtra cricket body polls

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to lift the stay imposed by the Bombay High Court on Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Apex Council elections.

A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi also made a very curt but strong observation on the MCA's

"Injunction is justified. They (Bombay High Court) stopped you from committing bigger fraud! Do not invite more comments from us," the top court said.

It noted that the matter is pending consideration before the High Court on merits and MCA can make its case there.

"Matter is pending before the High Court. You can go and argue before the High Court," the apex court stated.

The High Court had on January 6 halted the MCA Apex Council elections after observing that large-scale induction of new members into the general body of MCA just ahead of the polls raised serious questions of legality, fairness and transparency.

The interim order came as a setback for incumbent MCA President and NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) MLA Rohit Pawar.

The High Court noted that around 400 new members had been admitted to the MCA general body barely two months before the election schedule was published on December 23, 2025.

The High Court also gave a prima facie opinion that sufficient opportunity was not given to the petitioners to raise their objections to admission of such large number of members and their inclusion in the voters list.

“Admission of about 400 new members would certainly change the whole complexion and to a certain extent the Constitution of the MCA in certain aspects,” the bench noted.

The High Court passed the order on petitions filed by former Indian cricketer Kedar Jadhav, Latur District Cricket Association, Anant Nilkanth Mate (life member of MCA) and Shikshana Prasarak Mandali’s Sir Parashurambhau College, Pune.

Jadhav’s plea specifically alleged that the new list included relatives of NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar—including his wife Kunti Pawar and father-in-law Satish Magar—as well as NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule’s daughter Revati, Baramati Agro’s Subhash Gulave, and over 30 NCP leaders.

The plea claimed these names were added "all of a sudden without following due process of law.

Jadhav alleged that the list "smirks of building dynasties" by including close relatives of the current president.

After the High Court stayed the polls, the MCA moved the Supreme Court.

Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for MCA, said that the injunction was "illegal".

However the Supreme Court refused to entertain the appeal and asked MCA to argue the matter before the High Court.

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