CHENNAI: Do practice directions issued by ethics officer for filing a complaint violate BCCI’s constitution which was approved by the Supreme Court on August 9, 2018?
The guidelines uploaded by the BCCI on its website said that every complaint before the ethics officer shall be filed in physical form, comprising two hard copies (an original and a photocopy). These complaints shall be sent, either by post or by hand, to the office of the ethics officer at the Cricket Centre, Mumbai, according to the guidelines.
The new mechanism has been devised to put a check on frivolous complaints and entertain only genuine ones. But, it is at odds with BCCI’s constitution. Rule 39 (2) (b) of the Memorandum of Association and Rules and Regulations of the BCCI say cognizance of any instance of conflict of interest may be taken by the ethics officer by way of a complaint in writing to the official postal or email address.
Justifying formulation of the guidelines, the BCCI through its practice directions stated, “It has been noticed that numerous emails are being received, which contain all kinds of allegations against past and present players, officials, functionaries of the BCCI in India, etc. This often results in delay in the processing of the genuine complaints or some of them, inadvertently, get ignored due to the sheer number of emails received by the office of the ethics officer.”
“Therefore, it has become absolutely necessary to devise a mechanism to ensure that only genuine complaints are received and entertained by the office of the ethics officer, which shall also ensure that the same get taken up and decided expeditiously and no time is wasted in dealing with frivolous/non-genuine complaints,” read the practice directions.
The guidelines also stated that complaint shall contain complete postal address along with pin code, mobile number, email ID and landline number of the person against whom charges are made. Any complaint, filed without complying with the practice directions, shall be liable to be rejected summarily, without going into its merits, said the directions.
Vinod Rai, head of the CoA, Rahul Johri, BCCI CEO and ethics officer Justice DK Jain remained unavailable for comments.