Jaipur, July 2 -- The Rajasthan high court on Wednesday suspended the Rajasthan Cricket Association's ad hoc committee with immediate effect and appointed senior IAS officer Bhaskar A Sawant, the state's home secretary, as its interim administrator. The order was passed by a division bench headed by acting chief justice SP Sharma while hearing a public interest litigation filed by Rajiv Pratap Singh. The plea contended that the ad hoc committee, constituted on June 29, 2024, was only a temporary arrangement and had been directed by the high court to conduct RCA elections within three months. However, despite the expiry of the stipulated period, no elections were held. The petitioner argued that instead of conducting elections, tenure of the ad hoc committee was repeatedly extended, preventing the formation of a democratically elected executive committee. According to the plea, the repeated extensions violated the court's earlier directions. During the hearing, the division bench also questioned the role of the Registrar of Cooperative Societies over the prolonged delay in conducting elections. The court directed the Registrar to explain why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him for failing to ensure that elections were held within the prescribed time frame and for allowing the ad hoc arrangement to continue. Appearing for the petitioner, advocates Ashwini Jeman and Piyush Nag submitted that the state government had constituted the ad hoc committee in March 2024 solely to conduct the RCA elections within three months. However, instead of completing the electoral process, the committee's tenure was repeatedly extended, adversely affecting the democratic functioning of the association. Speaking after the hearing, Advocate Piyush Nag said the court had earlier sought an explanation from the Registrar on why the committee had continued for over two years without holding elections. "Today, the Registrar was again asked why elections had not been conducted, but he failed to provide a satisfactory response. The court, therefore, superseded the ad hoc committee, withdrew all its powers and appointed Bhaskar A. Sawant as the administrator," Nag said. He added that the court directed Sawant to prepare and submit an election schedule by the last week of July so that the long-pending RCA elections can be conducted at the earliest. Nag further said the court also issued a notice to the secretary of the cooperative department, asking why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him. He has been directed to file his response before the next hearing. The ad hoc committee was headed by convener Mohit Yadav, with Dhananjay Singh, Ashish Tiwari, Sushil Jain, Arisht Singhvi and Arjun Beniwal serving as members. Several members have close political affiliations. Mohit Yadav is BJP MLA Jaswant Yadav's son, Dhananjay Singh is health minister Gajendra Singh Khimsar's son, Ashish Tiwari is BJP MP Ghanshyam Tiwari's son, Arjun Beniwal is the son of Bhadra MLA Sanjeev Beniwal, and Arisht Singhvi is the grandson of former minister Chandraraj Singhvi....