The Supreme Court on Monday said that the Constitutional right to form an association and to independently run its affairs is a right available to citizens and not for an apex cricket body such as the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) which comprises of private cricket clubs.
"The BCCI does not consist of citizens but Associations. So if the structure of BCCI is to be changed, it will not violate Article 19(1)(c) giving right to form associations as you (BCCI) are an association. You can only claim violation of contractual laws as violation of Article 19(1)(c) is a right available only to citizens," said a bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justice FM Ibrahim Kalifulla.
The observations came in response to an argument made by one of the cricket clubs — Cricket Club of India, one of the founding members of BCCI. Appearing for CCI, senior advocate Shyam Divan opposed the one state one vote norm floated by lodha panel as doing so will automatically eliminate voting right of CCI.
When Divan argued that membership, voting rights of a private registered society must be left to the concerned body and should not be interfered by Courts, the bench reiterated that the effort by lodha panel was to inspire confidence and provide credibility to the game. "The recommendations aimed at making functions of BCCI transparent, objective and responsive to the needs of the game. It is for this purpose of streamlining BCCI; the Committee felt the need to remove undeserving persons so as to improve the system." The bench added, "On principle, you have to accept that the purpose of the whole exercise starting from the judgment delivered (in January 2015) was meant to achieve a very laudable and deserving result to make BCCI a transparent, open, credible, objective and responsive body to inspire confident and credible system and to achieve that objective we will be very careful that the recommendations are not violative of fundamental right guaranteed under Article 19(1) (c)." The hearing will continue next week.
The bench questioned the CCI for opposing the one-state, one-vote formula, asking it whether after an objective assessment of lodha committee recommendations, it can say there is no reason why it has no right to vote.
"Territory is big and more important than to say why it can't have the right to vote," the bench said, adding that the purpose of the exercise was "to streamline, for which it necessary to remove undeserving rights is enjoyed by certain persons."
"If we have to go by you, it appears that the continuance of BCCI is beyond repair," the bench said, adding that BCCI was not a private body and was accountable and answerable.
"Even if you consider BCCI a private entity, it conducts a public function and lodha committee has examined what changes are required and what actually in it can inspire confidence," the bench said.
While the CCI was lauding about its initiative and infrastructure for the development of cricket, the bench asked some searching questions about finance for its functioning.
"Why are you not receiving any money from BCCI for promoting the gameIJ What is your income for five yearsIJ Do you have the balance sheet to show and how the other activities are carried outIJ We will have an idea why you are not getting financial support from BCCI," the bench asked and added "it is very rare to find that you go on with cricket activity and you need no support of finance."