Court reserves order till April 20 on case by Azharuddin

A Hyderabad civil court on Monday reserved its order till April 20 on the case filed by former cricket captain Mohammed Azharuddin, challenging the life ban imposed on him by the BCCI, and the appointment of K Madhavan as the cricket board's inquiry commissioner.

The second additional chief judge of city court J Shyamsunder Rao heard arguments from both sides on an interlocutory application by Azharuddin seeking production of documents on appointment of Madhavan, a former CBI Joint Director who probed the match fixing scandal.

Apart from the main suit challenging the life ban slapped on him following allegations of match fixing, the Hyderabadi batsman had filed four interlocutory applications seeking production of several documents relating to Madhavan's appointment.

Arguing before the court, Azharuddin's counsel T Jagadish sought the production of documents on the appointment of Madhavan, minutes of BCCI annual general body meeting and the resolution adopted to sanction his appointment.

The counsel wanted to know the reasons for delay on the part of BCCI in serving the appointment letter to Madhavan. While his appointment was reportedly made on August 29 last year, the appointment letter was served on him a month later on September 29, he argued. However, Madhavan's counsel Ramesh Ranganathan contended that there was no need to produce the appointment letter.

The BCCI had appointed the vigilance commissioner in pursuit of its decision as per the amended rules, he said and cited several instances where the cricket board did not produce documents in cases filed in various courts.

Azharuddin had filed a 17 page writ petition in the city civil court here in January last challenging the life ban and also levelling serious charges against the cricket board on several counts.

The former skipper had dubbed as 'illegal and arbitrary' the appointment of Madhavan and alleged that the probe into the match fixing scandal was not done in a transparent manner.