The Supreme Court finally cracked the whip on the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Anurag Thakur and Secretary Ajay Shirke, removing them from their respective posts on Monday.
After their failure to bring transparency and accountability to the Indian cricket board, the officials were sacked due to non-compliance of the court’s 18 July 2016 order. The apex court also decided to initiate contempt proceedings against Thakur by seeking his response as to why he should not be held liable for obstructing the implementation of the court's directions aimed at reforming BCCI.
A bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur said that for the time being, the senior-most Vice President of BCCI will serve as President and the Joint Secretary as the cricket board’s Secretary. It also requested senior advocate Fali S Nariman and senior SC lawyer Gopal Subramanium as Amicus Curiae to assist the court in nominating persons of impeccable integrity as members in the committee of administrators.
All BCCI & State Association Office-Bearers to Abide By Lodha Panel Recommendations
The court announced that all office-bearers of BCCI and state associations who fail to give an undertaking to abide by the Lodha Committee recommendations “shall demit the post and cease to be office-bearers”.
It made it clear that as per the recommendations of the Lodha panel which have been accepted by the apex court, no person above 70 years of age, unsound mind, ministers, government servants, convicted persons and those who have held the posts for a cumulative period of nine years and those who are part of any other sports association shall be eligible to hold any position in the cricket bodies.
Reacting to the court’s order, Justice Lodha said, “It’s the victory for the game of cricket and it will flourish; administrators come and go but it’s (the order) for the benefit of the game. This was to happen, and now this has happened. Had submitted three reports before the Supreme Court, even then it wasn’t implemented.”
The Supreme Court will now take up the matter on 19 January.
BCCI Failure to Implement Recommendations & Thakur’s Perjury Case
The apex court-appointed Lodha Committee had on 4 January last year recommended sweeping reforms and an administrative shake-up in the troubled BCCI.
On 18 July 2016, the SC had accepted major recommendations of the Lodha panel on reforms in the BCCI, and had rejected the board's objection to 'one-state, one-vote', noting that Maharashtra and Gujarat have more than one cricket body.
The bench had accepted the recommendation that one person should hold one post in the cricket administration to avoid conflict of interest and scrapping of all administrative committees in BCCI after a CAG nominee comes in.
During a 15 December 2016 hearing, the apex court had threatened to initiate contempt and perjury proceedings against Thakur for asking the ICC CEO for a letter but denying it on oath. The court had warned Thakur he may have to go to jail if found guilty. The bench headed by the chief justice had also pulled up BCCI for trying to mislead the court and warned Thakur that he may land in jail if the apex court pronounces its order in the perjury proceedings.
It had also referred to a letter by ICC Chairman Shashank Manohar and said even he has stated that Thakur had asked for a letter saying that the Supreme Court order on the BCCI-Lodha case was akin to government intervention.The apex court had also said that by asking ICC to write such a letter, BCCI has intended to defeat the purpose of the verdict, that too when the bench had made it clear that appointment of a CAG nominee would bring about transparency in the cricket body.
(With inputs from PTI and ANI.)
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