Supreme court halts appointment of interim administrator

The Supreme Court has stayed the appointment of Justice S Mohan as the interim administrator of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, and also the appointment of Jagmohan Dalmiya as patron-in-chief.

N Santosh Hegde and SB Sinha, the two judges constituting a division bench, passed the order on a special-leave petition filed by the BCCI, challenging the Madras High Court order of October 8 that installed Mohan as the interim administrator. The bench has posted the matter for a final hearing on October 26.

In their petition, the BCCI contended that the appointment of Mohan in the middle of a series was a grave error, and that even the process of selecting players and appointing third umpires had come to a halt. The BCCI added that implementation of the order would result in cricket at national and international level coming to a standstill.

The board also contended the high court had committed a gross error in admitting a review petition filed by the Netaji Cricket Club, of Chennai, when a petition against the election of BCCI office-bearers had been disposed of on September 29. The board also pointed out that this order was passed with the consent of all the parties and, therefore, the question of review did not arise.