SC defers BCCI's review plea on implementing Lodha panel's suggestions
The issues over which the two are at loggerheads are one vote per state, one person-one post, age cap for office-bearers and the cooling-off period.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred a review petition by Board of Control for Cricket in India asking it to reconsider its verdict on the implementation of the Justice Lodha Committee recommendations. The BCCI had argued that the committee's suggestions were impractical. The key issues over which the Lodha committee and the BCCI are at loggerheads are one vote per state, one person-one post, age cap for office-bearers, and the cooling-off period.
The petition will come up again in two weeks, PTI reported.
In its July 18 ruling, the apex court had accepted all of the panel's recommendations except for one on the broadcasting of cricket matches. The key recommendations that were upheld included the one state-one vote directive, capping the age of office-bearers at 70 years, and inducting an official from the Comptroller and Auditor General of India into the BCCI.
It also ruled that Parliament would have to decide on whether the cricket board came under the aegis of the Right to Information Act and whether betting should be legalised. The court also declared that no ministers or serving bureaucrats could serve on the cricket board.
The Justice Lodha Panel was formed by the apex court in January 2015 to look into the affairs of the BCCI, in the aftermath of the spot-fixing scandal in the 2013 edition of the Indian Premier League. Comprising former chief justice RM Lodha and retired Supreme Court judges Ashok Bhan and R Raveendran, the committee had announced its first verdict in July that year, recommending the suspension of two IPL franchises – Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royal – for two years. It had also called for a ban on the two principal owners of these teams – Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra.
Corrections & Clarifications: This copy has been edited to say the petition was deferred and not dismissed.