In a judgement that provided relief to the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the Supreme Court on Thursday set aside some of the controversial recommendations of the Justice Lodha committee.
The biggest among these changes were the one-state-one-vote rule being rescinded and allowing of two consecutive terms before a cooling period. The Supreme Court gave full membership status to the Mumbai Cricket Association, Saurashtra, Vidarbha Cricket Association, Railways, Services and All India Universities.
Understandably, Justice RM Lodha, who headed the committee that had drafted the reforms in the first place, is not very happy about the court going back and diluting the original judgement. The Supreme Court, in its July 18, 2016 verdict, accepted most of the recommendations of the committee which was formed in January 2015 under the retired Justice.
“Honestly I am disappointed because the very policy has been affected. The dilution allows some officials to continue their domination which we had tried to end,” Lodha told The Hindu.
“The idea was to break the monopoly of office-bearers who have been long in power. Unless they are removed there won’t be space for newcomers. Our reforms were aimed to stop these officials from building their kingdom for six years. The judgement has taken out the foundation stone,” he was quoted as saying.
However, he added that the altered drafts didn’t entirely undo the suggested reforms and it is still a step in the right direction.
“I wouldn’t say we are back to square one but I am not very happy as the fundamental structure of the reforms has been changed and affected. This is a weakened structure as compared to the one we had suggested,” he told Hindustan Times.
He also disappointed that the Committee of Administrators didn’t implement the constitution in the time they were in charge of BCCI.
Lodha also explained why he felt the change in ‘One State one vote’ policy is not a good idea, because it means monopoly and government interference. “We wanted to put all States on par because of the tendency in the past to manipulate votes. Western India will now have six votes and people will take control of these votes,” he told The Hindu.
“We did not deny Railways, AIU or Services participation in cricket, like Ranji Trophy. But we did not want government interference. We did not want any scope for manoeuvring and manipulation. University vote will, in a way, be decided by the Ministry of Human Resources. The Railways vote will be decided by the Railways ministry, i.e. again the government,” he told Hindustan Times.