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CoA removes BCCI office-bearers citing new constitution; power handed to board professionals

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByBaidurjo Bhose
Aug 23, 2018 04:46 PM IST

In the mail, accessed by Hindustan Times, the CoA has told the three office-bearers that as the earlier constitution of the BCCI (“Old Constitution”) stands extinguished and the new constitution has come into force, the new constitution entrusts the day-to-day management of the BCCI to its professional management.

The Committee of Administrators (CoA) in a new directive on Thursday withdrew the powers of the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) acting president CK Khanna, acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhury and treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry. Quoting the August 9 judgment of the Supreme Court and the newly registered constitution, the CoA has handed the majority of the powers to the CEO and the CFO till fresh election is conducted in the BCCI and new members take control. The CoA also informed the office-bearers that all the committees and sub-committees of the BCCI have also been abolished.

A file of image of the BCCI logo.(Hindustan Times via Getty Images)
A file of image of the BCCI logo.(Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

In the mail, accessed by Hindustan Times, the CoA has told the three office-bearers that as the earlier constitution of the BCCI (“Old Constitution”) stands extinguished and the new constitution has come into force, the new constitution entrusts the day-to-day management of the BCCI to its professional management.

“All affairs of the BCCI shall be conducted in accordance with the new constitution and the judgments and orders of the Supreme Court. Any function to be performed by the Apex Council and/or the Governing Council under the new constitution shall be performed by the Committee of Administrators until a new Apex Council and Governing Council are elected. Except for the Cricket Advisory Committee and the duly reconstituted Selection Committees, all committees/ sub-committees under the old constitution stand dissolved with immediate effect.

“In the event any urgent decision that cannot await the appointment of new committees/ sub-committees in terms of the new constitution is required to be taken, the same may either be taken by the Committee of Administrators or the Committee of Administrators may constitute an ad-hoc committee comprising of persons who meet the relevant criteria stipulated in the new constitution to assist the Committee of Administrators in taking such urgent decision,” the letter reads.

The CoA also informed the three office-bearers that the signing powers have been handed to CEO Rahul Johri, General Manager, Cricket Openeration Saba Karim, CFO Santosh Rangnekar, Hemang Amin, Anil Joshi and Vijay Tiwari.

The letter further reads: “The CEO shall complete all necessary paperwork and formalities with the banks for ensuring that the above persons are the only signatories for all bank accounts. The CEO has been given power to act as signing power in case of all pleadings, affidavits and applications. He will also continue to instruct lawyers in case of fresh and pending cases. “The CEO alone shall continue to sign all pleadings, affidavits, applications, etc. in respect of legal proceedings filed by or against the BCCI. The CEO alone shall continue to issue instructions to advocates/ legal advisors in relation to fresh as well as pending legal proceedings under the supervision and control of the Committee of Administrators.”

Any issues faced in implementation of these directives are to be reported to the CoA according to the letter. “In the event there is any difficulty in the implementation or execution of these directions or any other directions that have been or may be issued by the Committee of Administrators, the CEO shall forthwith bring the same to the knowledge of the Committee of Administrators to issue such further directions for implementation as it may consider necessary,” the letter says.

Speaking to Hindustan Times, a senior BCCI official asked if the CoA have the power to do this as they were given the authority to issue directions for due supervision and control. The CoA should have ideally ensured smooth transition rather than taking control.

“The latest directions are quite revealing in the sense that the bias of the CoA is percolating through the communication. Instead of seeking directions from the Supreme Court regarding these steps that have been taken, they have gone ahead and appointed themselves as supremos by dissolving all committees and purposely excluding the office bearers from everything.

“The CoA was to supervise the administration of the BCCI and they had been given the power to issue directions to office bearers to ensure their supervision and control but here you see that they have virtually appointed themselves as the Apex Council and the Governing Council of the IPL which they are not authorized to do. They should have sought directions from the Supreme Court in this regard,” he said.

Another official echoed the sentiments and said that even as per the new constitution, there is a place for office-bearers in the Apex Council and having the experienced members would have helped.

“Even as per the new constitution, the office bearers are part of the Apex Council and it would have been the logical course to include the present office bearers in this temporary administrative set up accordingly in order to at least do lip service to the new constitution but for reasons best known to them, they have chosen to centralize everything with themselves without even approaching the court before taking such a step.

“As far as we are concerned, we are quite relieved since we won’t have any accountability for some of the strange financial and administrative decisions that are being taken these days,” he said.

Hindustan Times tried to get in touch with CoA chief Vinod Rai for comment on the latest developments but he did not respond to calls.

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