Determined to clean up cricket administration, the Supreme Court on Thursday said that the BCCI should either “fall in line” with the recommendations of the Justice RM lodha panel or the court will issue orders for the implementation of the recommendations. The court gave BCCI four weeks to decide its stand and report by March 3, the next date of hearing.
The far-reaching reforms proposed by the committee had fixed an age and tenure for every top post in the BCCI and put a bar on Ministers and Government servants from becoming office-bearers in the apex cricketing body.
The Bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justice FM Ibrahim Kalifulla came out in full support of the lodha panel report claiming it was reasonable and rational that deserved respect. It said, “Well meaning members of the fraternity have prepared the report after holding consultations with all
stakeholders. They have come out with a rational and viable solution to all problems facing the Board.”
Besides lodha, the committee comprised former SC judges Ashok Bhan and RV Raveendran.
Senior advocate Shekhar Naphade, who represented the BCCI, submitted that the implementation of reforms is being studied by the 30-member Board for which consultation process is still on. But the Bench was in no mood to grant any extension and set an ultimatum.
It said, “This is not a second innings for you (BCCI).It is all over. The Committee’s recommendations are in sync with time, understandable and rational… the Board must move towards implementing the reforms.”
Naphade pointed out that some technical issues may arise in changing the character of the Board as it is presently registered as a society under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act. Sensing the discomfort of the Board, the Bench said, “Some people who are holding the posts for years will get affected.” Adding to the discomfort, the Bench observed that if the Board had any difficulty to implement reforms, the Court will step in and ask the lodha panel to take over the job of implementation.
“If you (BCCI) want to do it, do it quickly. Or else, we will write a small order saying that since BCCI is finding it difficult to implement the reforms we ask the lodha Committee to assist in implementation of the reforms.”
The proposed reforms suggested by the lodha panel, in many ways, will end the monopoly exercised by certain States and zones as it recommended for “one State, one vote”. Effectively, it curbed the multiple voting rights exercised by Maharashtra and Gujarat during selection of President. They have three votes each.
Fortunately, the petitioner in the case -- Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB), which had initiated the process of clean up in the cricket body -- agreed with all the recommendations of lodha panel, including the one giving clean chit to former IPl chief operating officer Sundar Raman.
By an earlier report, the lodha panel had disqualified the teams of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals playing in the IPl T20 tournament following involvement of their team managers in spot fixing and betting. This set the stage for the big ticket reforms in the BCCI, then headed by N Srinivasan, whose son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan was found involved in match fixing by the lodha panel. He was the team manager for team CSK.