The Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI) has submitted a draft constitution to the Supreme Court in line with the suggestions of Justice R M Lodha panel on reforms in the apex cricket body of the country. On another note, the Supreme Court had exempted the three office-bearers CM Khanna, Amitabh Choudhary, and Anirudh Chaudhry from appearing before the apex court on November 29, who was summoned for allegedly interfering in the preparations of the draft constitution.
A bench which was headed by Chief Justice Dipak Mishra stated that they would not entertain any plea to intervene the ongoing proceedings, saying that it would be ‘cruelly’ rejected. The bench which had Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said:
“In pursuance of an earlier order, the draft constitution has been filed. The personal appearance of the office-bearers is now dispensed away with.”
Earlier, the court had summoned the three officials after they accused of stalling the drafting of the constitutions according to the judgment, and warned them of serious consequences if failed to give suggestions.
The top court had said that the draft constitution should include the suggestions put forward by the Lodha Committee entirely so that it can be placed before it for a final decision. The three officials who were summoned on August 23 hearing was present in the court yesterday.
The Lodha Panel was formed in January 2015 in the wake of the Mukul Mudgal Committee report that called in for the reforms within the BCCI. The Mukul Mudgal Committee had gone into the state of affairs of the apex cricketing body post the 2013 IPL betting scandal. The Lodha Panel called in for some reforms such as one state one post; one member one post; and capping the age up to 70 years for holding a position in the administrative body. Notably, the Supreme Court accepted most of the reforms suggested by the Lodha Committee to reform the BCCI after a lot of maladministration cases came up in the cricket body.