The Supreme Court on Monday defended the Justice Lodha panel’s recommendation of putting a cap of the 70 year age limit for the Board of Control for Cricket in India administrators and said it was tim
The Supreme Court on Monday defended the Justice Lodha panel’s recommendation of putting a cap of the 70 year age limit for the Board of Control for Cricket in India administrators and said it was time for the veterans to step down.
A Bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justiced Ibrahim Kalifulla while hearing the BCCI case, was responding to arguments of the Haryana Cricket Association opposing the cap of 70 years. Senior counsel Puneet Bali submitted that the Lodha panel had put unnecessary restrictions on the age limit of officer bearers by restricting it to a maximum of 70years.
The CJI told the counsel, “There may be a stage where you must tell them, sir, you have done enough. Time for you to step down. There are others to take over. Nobody is indispensable irrespective of whatever his contribution to the game may be.”
The counsel said granting automatic membership to former international players from the state like Kapil Dev cannot be imposed on the association by the court or the Justice Lodha panel. He said, “There are some international players who have dubious record. I don’t want to take them , but I am being asked to take them. They are not capable enough to run the administration. There was an international player, who wanted to contest a post. He did not have even one person to second his nomination. This international cricketer later went to form a parallel body.”
The CJI observed, “You (Haryana) don’t have a single stadium. Where has the Rs 100 crore gone which you received since 2010 Are you giving some sort of lip service for the recommendations
“So that you can come here one day and say I have gone through the recommendations and reject it These recommendations are not perfunctory or superficial. They are a very serious exercise. A very serious exercise has been undertaken.”
