The Supreme Court is likely to order a new Committee comprising retired judges or experts to decide quantum of punishment for those involved in the IPl betting scam, including Chennai Super King official Gurunath Meiyappan, who is also the son-in-law of ousted BCCI President N Srinivasan.
A decision in this regard is awaited even as the Supreme Court spelt out broad contours of a possible solution to ensure that those found guilty by the Justice Mudgal panel are adequately punished and at the same time the disturbing question of conflict of interest involving Srinivasan gets addressed.
Calling it a high powered Committee, the bench of Justices TS Thakur and FM Ibrahim Kalifulla sought the views of the BCCI, Srinivasan and other parties to prepare the finer details of procedure to be followed by the said Committee. The hearing will continue on Wednesday
While Mudgal panel established betting charges against Meiyappan and Rajasthan Royals owner Raj Kundra, the role of Srinivasan as regards his conflict of interest was not decided although sufficient hints were dropped to illustrate how Srinivasan wore many hats as BCCI President, Chennai Super Kings owner and IPl Governing Council member.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal who appeared for Srinivasan broadly accepted the Court’s suggestion but felt that the issue of conflict of interest should not be again revisited as this would subject his client to fresh inquiry.
The bench said, “let the committee take a look at the aspect of alleged cover-up by Srinivasan to shield his son-in-law and whether there was conflict of interest.” The Court even hinted that till such Committee decided on the question of conflict of interest, it would be in the fitness of things to put the BCCI elections on hold.
Sibal opposed any move to restrain his participation in the elections in the absence of any finding against him. Moreover, any such order would send a wrong signal harming Srinivasan’s reputation.
Instead, Sibal was willing to give an undertaking that if he got elected as President, he would step aside till the high powered committed finished probe.
Earlier in the day, when Srinivasan counted his contribution to the game of cricket, the bench questioned his presence at the Board Working Committee meeting in November despite his undertaking given in March to step down as President.
Sibal conceded that on hindsight Srinivasan should not have attended the meeting but justified his presence in the meeting as Tamil Nadu Cricket Association office bearer.