CHENNAI: With the court-appointed administrators (CoA) seeking the removal of the acting president, secretary and treasurer, all eyes in the BCCI are on Friday’s Supreme Court hearing.
Originally scheduled to rule on the BCCI’s request for review of contentious points and fill up two slots in the CoA left vacant by Ramachandra Guha and Vikram Limaye, the court will have something drastically different to rule on, if the CoA’s fifth status report comes up for hearing.
The same three-member special bench headed by Chief Justice-in waiting Dipak Misra had said in its previous hearing that the court’s reform order has to be implemented in full, other than in situations where it’s not practicalble.
The BCCI’s decision to add age and tenure caps in the list of matters impractical has not gone down well with the CoA, which has cited this as one of the reasons why the office-bearers should be removed.
“Considering that the CoA is a body appointed by the apex court, there is reason to believe that the court will uphold their view. The office-bearers (president CK Khanna, secretary Amitabh Choudhary, treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry) will have to go in that case, like Anurag Thakur and Ajay Shirke (former BCCI president and secretary, respectively, removed in January),” said a senior BCCI member.
However, a section of BCCI members also think that the officials whose removal has been sought can make a case for themselves if the court listens to them. The argument is the same, old one that the office-bearers are not against the reforms, the state units are. It can be remembered that this version was entertained by the court when Thakur and Shirke were sacked.
“It’s the general body of the BCCI that decided so and so points should be listed as impractical, not the office-bearers. If given a chance, the office-bearers can tell the court why they shouldn’t be held responsible. But given that we already have a precedent, it won’t surprise if the court goes by that,” said another member.
If the court accepts the CoA’s proposal, the BCCI will be run by this panel and the CEO with other paid staff, until elections are held at the annual general meeting. With no clarity over whether the state units will be allowed to hold the AGM unless they accept the reform order, it can’t be said if the meeting will take place in Sepetmber as per convention.
atreyo@newindianexpress.com