Court warns BCCI about ineligible office-bearers

In a warning to the BCCI and its state associations, the Supreme Court has indicated that people who do not meet the Lodha Committee's criteria to be office-bearers cannot take part in the board's meetings or represent it at the ICC.

The response was to the Committee of Administrators (CoA), appointed by the court to run the BCCI, asking for clarity on whether disqualified office-bearers could return as representatives to attend BCCI or ICC meetings. The CoA's request was part of its third status report and was submitted to the court on Friday, two days before the BCCI's special general body meeting.

The SGM was called in part to select a person to represent the board at the crucial quarterly round of ICC meetings in Dubai from April 24 to 27. The COA was aware that former BCCI president N Srinivasan, who fails the eligibility criteria on three counts, would be in attendance and was a favourite for the role. Eventually, the SGM was adjourned, and acting BCCI president CK Khanna said they would reconvene after the court issued its final decision on April 17.

According to the Lodha Committee's recommendations, anyone who is 70 years of age, or has completed separate nine-year terms as an office-bearer at state and BCCI levels is no longer eligible to remain an office-bearer with the board. In a short hearing on Monday the CoA, through its legal counsel Chander Uday Singh, raised the concern that these disqualified officials could still represent the board at ICC meetings.

Kapil Sibal and Tushar Mehta, arguing on behalf of the BCCI and some state associations, said even if a person is disqualified to be an office-bearer, they could not be barred from being named a representative for the board or a state.

The three-judge bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra, AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud said they would give their final decision on April 17. "This is a matter to be debated," they said, although they did wonder about how a disqualified official could represent the BCCI at the ICC to do something "indirectly which otherwise directly was not permissible."

This is the second time in three months the court has been asked to take a call on who will represent the BCCI at ICC meetings. In February, the court had approved three names - Vikram Limaye (CoA member), Amitabh Choudhury (acting secretary) and Anirudh Chaudhry (treasurer) for this purpose. Choudhury attended the ICC chief executives committee meeting while Limaye represented BCCI at the Financial & Commercial Affairs and the ICC Board meetings.