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  BCCI gets ultimatum from Supreme Court

BCCI gets ultimatum from Supreme Court

Published : Sep 29, 2016, 2:36 am IST
Updated : Sep 29, 2016, 2:36 am IST

The Supreme Court on Wednesday warned the Board of Control for Cricket in India that its defiance in not implementing Justice R.M.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday warned the Board of Control for Cricket in India that its defiance in not implementing Justice R.M. Lodha committee recommendations on reforms would be viewed seriously and said the board had to fall in line with the recommendations.

Chief Justice T.S. Thakur, heading a three-judge bench, which also included A.M. Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud, expressed his displeasure to senior counsel Arvind P. Datar, appearing for the board over the turn of events and said, “If the BCCI thinks that they are law unto themselves, then they are wrong. They have to comply with the directions of the court. You (BCCI) are behaving like Lords.

“Fall in line otherwise we will make you fall in line. BCCI is bringing the system to disrepute by not following the directions.”

When Datar submitted that the board had complied with most of the directions and would gradually comply with the rest, the CJI said: “BCCI, it seems, will go to the extent of defying court orders. We had been anticipating such disregard from the board.

“We don’t appreciate such tactics by the BCCI. We have no difficulty in passing orders to make sure our previous orders are implemented.”

The CJI made these observations after counsel for the Lodha panel Gopal Sankara- narayanan informed the court that the panel had filed a status report seeking removal of the top brass of the board, including its president, Anurag Thakur, and secretary Ajay Shirke for the continued non-compliance of the directions and pleaded for early listing of the matter.

The bench also took a dig at the board’s counsel for not curing defects in the petition seeking review of the July 17 judgment accepting the panel’s recommendations and directing implementation in six months.

The bench directed the board to file its response to the status report by October 6 and posted the matter for hearing on that day.

According to the Lodha report, while the office bearers of the BCCI gave assurances to the Supreme Court-appointed committee on August 9, August 25 and September 20 that they would cooperate with the committee towards fulfilling the directions of this court (subject to any modification or review), “the events over the past weeks have shown that this was not the case.

“Directions of the court had been ignored, actions taken to present a fait accompli to the committee, the directives of the committee had been breached, and member associations not been duly intimated about the directions of the committee and the timelines fixed by it.

“Apart from the above clear transgressions, the BCCI has repeatedly taken steps to undermine the committee and this court, with several statements and actions which are grossly out of order and would even constitute contempt,” the report said.

Listing some of the statements, the report pointed to the acceptance of the so-called interim report of Justice Katju and the uploading of the same on the official BCCI website.

The committee sought a direction for removal of the present office-bearers of the BCCI with immediate effect and appoint in their place a panel of administrators of the BCCI to ensure the smooth transition from the old to the new system.

Location: India, Delhi, New Delhi