The Supreme Court has endorsed a Kerala High Court judgement which held various sports body officials to be public servants and liable to be prosecuted under Prevention of Corruption Act. A bench of justices V S Sirpurkar and T S Thakur upheld the high courts October 26 ruling,dismissing two separate appeals by Kerala Cricket Association secretary T C Mathew and president T R Balakrishnan against it. The high court had held the duo to be public servants while permitting their prosecution under anti-corruption law. The apex court dismissed the KCA officials appeals,noting that the sports body officials handle huge funds,allocated by the government and various apex sports institutions,and perform functions akin to those of public servants,like selectintg cricket team and controlling players activities. If you actually handle so much funds,can you say you are not discharging public functions? said the apex court bench. The KCA officials had moved the high court challenging its October 26 ruling which allowed their prosecution under Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly misappropriating a huge chunk of KCA funds,which included Rs 28.42 crores,received from BCCI in 2004-08 and Rs 1.88 lakhs,receieved from the state government for promotion of cricket.
