"It is a victory of all the members and constituents of HPCA, their combined efforts and hardwork. We reaffirm our commitment towards the development of the game in Himachal in the best interest of all the stakeholders," Anurag Thakur, the President of HPCA, said in a press release.
"We are committed to provide world class facilities to the players of the state and create more infrastructure for them and make Himachal one of the powerhouses of the game in the country," he added.
"The government is supposed to uphold the law but this action was against the law and we agree with the petitioner that it was a politically-motivated action as the state is not expected to act like this," the bench observed.
The interim order has come as a big relief for the HPCA, which had sought restoration of the properties, dubbing the action of the government as "mala fide" and that natural justice had been denied by not issuing any notice before taking the action.
The bench said it was "an act of highhandedness" of the state authorities, which were expected to follow a due course of law to dispossess any person and maintained that the action was "politically motivated and goes against all established norms, rule of law and the Constitution".