Ex-judge Katju asks BCCI to ignore Lodha panel, file review plea

Justice Markandey Katju describes the Lodha committee as “bogus” and asks the BCCI to file a review petition in the Supreme Court

The Indian cricket board has been advised not to appear before the Justice RM Lodha Committee on Tuesday to discuss implementing its recommendations for reforms, former Supreme Court judge, Markandey Katju, said on Sunday.

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The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has turned to Justice Katju for advise as it opposes the Lodha panel’s directives to implement administrative reforms, in particular the recommendations barring office-bearers from holding posts beyond nine years and holding dual positions.

“It’s null and void, (it’s a) bogus committee,” he said as it became clear that the BCCI is geared up for more legal battles in its opposition to the Lodha panel report.

Justice Katju, at a media conference on Sunday, criticised the two-judge Supreme Court bench, comprising Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justice Ibrahim Khalifulla, who has since retired, for their directives. “What they have done is unconstitutional and totally illegal,” he said.

The Supreme Court, on July 18, ratified the Lodha panel report and directed the BCCI to implement its recommendations within six months. The cricket board’s working committee and the Special General Meeting met recently and Katju was appointed as a one-man commission to advise it.

Katju released a first report on Sunday, arguing that certain rulings by larger benches were ignored by the two-judge bench while giving its nod to the Lodha panel report.

BCCI president, Anurag Thakur, and secretary, Ajay Shirke, were asked to meet the Lodha panel on Tuesday, but that meeting is unlikely to happen now.

“I have advised them to file a review petition in the Supreme Court. I have also asked them (BCCI) not to meet the Lodha committee,” Katju said in the presence of Shirke.

The BCCI has 30 days from the July 18 ruling of the Apex court to file the review petition.

“An organ of the state can’t take over the working of another organisation. The Supreme Court could have forwarded the (Lodha panle) report to the parliament. Judiciary cannot legislate, and Justice Thakur has ignored that constitutional provision and wielded the lathi.”

“They can only interpret the law. They can’t make law,” he added.