The Supreme Court of India might have cut the BCCI some slacks yesterday but the apex court is no mood to let the cricket board off the hook.
After reserving its order on the board’s top brass yesterday, the court, on Tuesday, dismissed the cricket board’s petition that asked for a review of the court’s validation of the Lodha panel reforms.
The Lodha panel was formed by the Supreme Court last year after the Justice Mudgal committee recommended reforms in BCCI. The committee was given the responsibility of looking into the affairs of the cricket board after 2013 IPL spot-fixing and betting charges. However, the Lodha Panel’s recommendations have now gone down too well with the board and as a result, they have been reluctant to implement several recommendations.
But the Supreme Court has accepted the majority of the recommendations made by the three-member panel in July and ordered the cricket to implement them. However, the BCCI has still not fully implemented the results and the matters took an ugly turn when the Lodha Panel asked the court to remove the top brass of the board including president Anurag Thakur. But fortunately, for the board officials, the court has given them some more breathing time and have ordered them to implement the reforms sooner than later.
In the meantime, the cricket board filed a review petition, accusing the court of making a ‘prejudiced approach’ against the board.
“The judgment is unconstitutional and contrary to many binding precedents of this Court and adversely affects and nullifies the fundamental rights granted to citizens under Article 19(1)(c) of the Constitution,” the BCCI’s petition stated.
The judgement is a nullity as the judges were functus officio after passing of the main judgment of January 22, 2015, and the matter could not have been revived suo motu as no provision of law empowers the same and is contrary to the doctrine of separation of powers and contrary to settled law that the judiciary cannot make laws,” the report further added.
The board, on Monday, accused Justice Lodha of trying to ‘run cricket’ in the country by giving directions on match schedule, including the cash-rich IPL, which was beyond its jurisdiction. The board also accused the Panel of going out of their mandate to fix a gap of 15 days between domestic tournaments and the Indian Premier League (IPL). The panel was also accused of interfering in matters regarding tenders and contracts which do not come under its mandate.
With the board trying its best to not implement the reforms fully, the latest turn of events is a huge setback for them.