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BCCI denies violating SC orders on Lodha panel recommendations
The cricket board has denied disobeying the Supreme Court order to bring changes in the organisation in accordance with the RM Lodha committee’s recommendations, but defended its decision to continue with the old system.
The cricket board has denied disobeying the Supreme Court order to bring changes in the organisation in accordance with the RM Lodha committee’s recommendations, but defended its decision to continue with the old system.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) made these remarks on Wednesday when it filed an affidavit in response to the top court-appointed panel’s status report, which says the world’s richest cricket body had ignored suggestions for reforms.
A bench headed by chief justice TS Thakur will hear the response on Thursday.
The Lodha panel, formed in January 2015 as a follow-up to the court-appointed probe into the 2013 IPL spot-fixing scandal, had in its report sought the ouster of the board’s top brass, including president Anurag Thakur, for non-compliance of its recommendations.
The committee also complained that the board flouted suggested guidelines at its annual general meeting on September 21, which included taking a decision to form a new national selection committee.
Read | Here’s what Lodha panel’s report to Supreme Court had to say about BCCI
The selection panel, according to the BCCI, will meet on Thursday to pick the squad for the ODI series against New Zealand.
The BCCI sought to stick to its old system, saying the Tamil Nadu Societies Act governs it and the law allows certain privileges such as adopting a resolution with majority votes.
Its response says board members were told the panel’s report has to be accepted in totality. But the members, including government nominees, insisted on a vote and the resolution was rejected “overwhelmingly”.
The response came after the top court warned the board and gave time till October 6 to respond to the Lodha panel’s complaint. “You are behaving like lords. Fall in line, otherwise we will make you fall in line,” the court said last week.
The board has also been accused of not responding to mails from the panel. But the BCCI said it has exchanged over 40 mails with the Lodha panel.
Also, the BCCI sought Justice Markandey Katju’s presence if the top court wants to press contempt charges against the board for the former judge’s views on the Lodha panel.
Katju called the reforms “unconstitutional and illegal” this August after the BCCI approached him for legal opinion on the suggested board overhaul. The BCCI said Katju’s remarks were not the board’s official views.
Read | Fair is foul and foul is fair: The BCCI mantra to save itself
