SC Dismisses BCCI Review Plea Against Lodha Committee Reforms

On 18 July, the court had accepted recommendations of the Lodha Committee on reforms in BCCI.

Justice RM Lodha, Chairman of the Supreme Court-appointed Justice Lodha Committee (Photo: PTI)

The Supreme Court has dismissed the BCCI's plea seeking a review of its 18 July verdict directing it to implement the recommendations of the Justice RM Lodha panel on massive structural reforms in the cricket body.

A bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justice SA Bobde pronounced the order in chamber on 10 November, but it was made public on the apex court website only recently. The bench said:

We have examined the grounds urged in support of the prayer for review. We find no error apparent on the face of the record to warrant recall of our order dated 18 July 2016. The review petitions are, accordingly, dismissed.

The Cricket Association of Bihar, through its secretary Aditya Kumar Verma on whose plea the apex court had decided to pass a slew of directions for massive restructuring of BCCI’s administration, has been opposing the Board.

In the review petition, BCCI had demanded an open court hearing and besides the cricketing body, several others, including veteran cricket administrators Niranjan Shah and Chandu Borde, have sought re-examination of the verdict.

In its review plea, the BCCI had also contended that the judgement was “unreasoned” and “seeks to frame legislative measures for a private autonomous society in a field already occupied by legislations, both parliamentary and state”.

On 18 July, the court had accepted the recommendations of the Lodha Committee on reforms in BCCI, including a bar on ministers and civil servants and those above 70 from becoming its members. But the SC left it to Parliament to decide whether BCCI should come under the RTI Act and whether betting in cricket should be legalised.

The apex court had also accepted the recommendations of the Committee headed by retired Chief Justice of India Justice RM Lodha to have a CAG nominee in BCCI.

The bench also accepted the recommendation that one person should hold one post in cricket administration to avoid conflict of interest and scrapping of all other administrative committees in BCCI after the CAG nominee comes in.

The apex court-appointed Lodha Committee had on 4 January recommended sweeping reforms and an administrative shake-up in the troubled BCCI.