BCCI to file review petition against Supreme Court verdict

The BCCI is set to file a review petition against the Supreme Court's verdict that approved most of the Lodha Committee's recommendations. The decision to file the petition is based on the advice of former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju, who was appointed to counsel the board on the verdict related to the implementation of the committee's recommendations. It is also learnt BCCI president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke will not go through with their scheduled meeting with the Lodha Committee on Tuesday after Katju advised them against it.

"Our judicial review petition is pending. We will be going to file it [in the next two days]. Till the outcome is not there how can we go and attend the meeting?" a top BCCI official told ESPNcricinfo. "Justice Katju has clearly told us that you should go for the review petition. Members have also agreed [with his assessment]. We will look at the outcome of the review petition and take the necessary action."

It is understood that with the parliamentary session in progress on Tuesday, Thakur, who is a Member of Parliament with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, will be unavailable to meet the Lodha Committee in any case. It is understood that Shirke wrote to the committee on Sunday night requesting that the meeting be deferred. The committee, however, declined the request.

According to a legal expert, a review petition has to be filed within 30 days of the verdict, and it will be heard by the same bench of judges that passed the judgement, in this case Chief Justice of India TS Thakur.

"Review petitions are usually entertained when there is an error apparent. But here is a case where two judges have taken a very serious view of the matter; it's not like they have passed a judgement after one hearing," the legal expert told ESPNcricinfo. "The judges have taken a very specific view on the matter. The question of whether it's wrong is not something the Supreme Court is going to go into. They are not going to re-examine those things.

The expert said "99%" of the petitions were dismissed in the chamber itself. "[Review petitions come into the picture in] cases where very serious legal errors are committed, which the court may not have been aware of," the expert said."Some fact, for example, which for some reason the court didn't consider which completely alters the nature of the judgement. It's just sort of a thing which parties file mostly to prolong the matter as opposed to actually getting any relief.

"The point of having a Supreme Court is to ensure matters come to a conclusion and some final judgement is arrived at. Now if they will file a review petition it will go before CJI Thakur and some other judge who will be assigned to the matter."

The expert felt that should Thakur and Shirke not meet with the Lodha Committee it might lead to contempt proceedings. "There is an argument that can be made that the committee's findings essentially merge with the Supreme Court's judgement," he said. "Therefore, if they fail to abide by an order of the court then that could amount to contempt of the court.

"I am pretty sure if they don't meet them tomorrow then someone will file a contempt petition or the Supreme Court itself can also suo moto, take it upon themselves and say you should have appeared, or the Lodha Committee might write to the Supreme Court and say they haven't appeared."

A Lodha Committee source also confirmed that contempt proceedings would be initiated should Thakur and Shirke not turn up for the meeting.

The BCCI official, however, suggested the board couldn't afford to worry about consequences considering that they were "fighting for survival." "This is all we can do, what else can we do," he said. "We also have our fundamental rights."

Katju, who submitted an interim report to the BCCI on Sunday, had also termed the court's order "unconstitutional and illegal" and said it had violated "principles of the Indian Constitution".