Supreme Court suggests new IPL probe panel

The Supreme Court has suggested the formation of a new three-member panel to inquire into the corruption allegations in IPL 2013, and said that N Srinivasan should continue to abstain from discharging his duties as BCCI president. The hearing to decide on the composition of the inquiry panel is scheduled for Tuesday, but it was reported the court had recommended that former High Court judge Mukul Mudgal head it.

A bench of Justices AK Patnaik and JS Kehar also proposed the names of senior advocate and additional solicitor general N Nageshwar Rao and Assam Cricket Association member Nilay Dutta to be part of the panel.

The bench said that the panel would conduct an independent inquiry into the allegations and submit its report to the Supreme Court.

Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB) secretary Aditya Verma, who had filed the petition against the BCCI and Srinivasan, said he would request that the Supreme Court monitor the working of the inquiry panel. "We will be satisfied if this probe panel investigation is conducted directly under the supervision of the honourable Supreme Court," he said.

The court also heard on Monday a plea from the BCCI to allow Srinivasan to resume functioning as president because it said his absence was affecting cricket administration. The court said it would consider the request if Srinivasan stayed away from all matters concerning the IPL.

Srinivasan had been allowed to contest the BCCI elections on September 29 by the Supreme Court, but with a rider which said that if he won, he could not take charge as president as long as it was hearing the case related to him and the board. That ruling came on a petition filed by the CAB seeking to restrain Srinivasan from running for re-election pending the verdict on a petition filed in July. A day after Srinivasan was re-elected unopposed as BCCI president, the Supreme Court deferred its decision on the CAB petition until October 7.

The matter dates back to a plea that the CAB filed in June, raising charges of conflict of interest in the formation of the two-member inquiry panel set up to inquire allegations of corruption in the IPL. A Bombay High Court ruling later termed the probe panel "illegal". The BCCI and the CAB filed petitions in the Supreme Court against this order, with the CAB contending that the Bombay High Court could have suggested a fresh mechanism to look into the corruption allegations.