Srinagar, Sep 29 (KNO): Former cricketer and retired senior police officer Sudershan Mehta has issued a rebuttal to the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association’s (JKCA) statement on his petition, calling the remarks “aggravated criminal defamation” and a “calculated fraud upon the public.”
In a detailed statement, Mehta, as per the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), said the JKCA’s press release, published on September 28 in print and digital media, was not only malicious and defamatory but also misrepresented judicial records.
He said the publication of such remarks caused “irreparable damage” to his reputation as a police officer, sportsman, and long-time JKCA functionary.
Mehta stated that every assertion in the JKCA's statement was legally void, factually false, and conclusive evidence of malice in fact.
He contested JKCA’s claim that the High Court dismissed his petition as “frivolous” and questioned his locus standi. He said the honourable High Court order in WP(C) No. 2685/2025, dated September 26, disposed of the matter solely on the “technical and procedural ground of territorial jurisdiction.”
“This statement constitutes an unequivocal and deliberate distortion of the judicial order of the Hon'ble High Court in WP(C) No. 2685/2025, dated 26/09/2025 which tantamounts to the Contempt of the Hon’ble High Court,” Mehta stated.
Mehta added, "The JKCA’s subsequent false public declaration issued with utmost malicious dishonesty that the petition was dismissed on "baseless grounds" or due to "questioning locus standi" is a willful and egregious fabrication of facts, designed maliciously to prejudice the public record and deceive the stakeholders. The final order dated 26/09/2025 disposed of the petition only on the preliminary technical ground of territorial jurisdiction and significantly, the Hon’ble Court has explicitly left the merits open.”
Responding to JKCA’s reference to his “morally corrupt practices,” Mehta said, “This constitutes an extreme act of aggravated defamation and a direct affront to the rule of law. The precise factual and legal issues underpinning these defamatory allegations were the subject of Government Order No. 403-Home of 2022, which had directed punitive recovery from my pension. That punitive order was UNEQUIVOCALLY QUASHED AND SET ASIDE by the Hon'ble High Court in its landmark judgment rendered in WP(C) No. 2027/2025 dated 11/09/2025 (Para 33).”
The statement to the JKCA press release further added, “the statements — accusing the petitioner of a "nefarious design" and claiming his actions reflect a "mindset driven by envy and obstructionism" — constitute an extreme, baseless, and slanderous character assassination that confirms the malicious intent whose calculated objective is to use the media to destroy the petitioner's reputation by falsely imputing high-level criminal intent.”
The statement added, “ the JKCA's public denial of facts proven by its own administration is irrefutable evidence of calculated dishonesty and malice as the Modern Cricket Club Jammu has been affiliated with the J&K Cricket Association since the 1972 and the undersigned petitioner is the President of Modern Cricket Club Jammu since 1998.”
Mehta strongly objected to JKCA’s description of him as a “retired junior police officer” and “self-proclaimed ex-cricketer.” He clarified that he retired as Deputy Superintendent of Police (Selection Grade) with an unblemished service record and was twice recommended for the President’s Police Medal for Meritorious Service.
He added that he was a genuine cricketer who represented J&K in Ranji Trophy from 1985 to 1996, played for Northern Zone U-19 and U-22 winning teams, and was the first J&K cricketer to score a century in the Col. C.K. Nayudu Trophy in 1979—(KNO)