The Supreme Court on Monday decided to hear the appeal of former pacer S Sreesanth challenging a Kerala High Court verdict restoring the life ban imposed on him by Board of Control for Cricket in India in the wake of the 2013 Indian Premier League spot-fixing scandal.
“Let the appeal be listed for final hearing after eight weeks,” a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud said.
Sreesanth had earlier told the court that the life ban was an extremely harsh penalty and that he has not been playing for the last five years. However, the BCCI had said the case against Sreesanth was “open and shut” as telephonic conversations had revealed he had taken money for bowling no balls during an 2013 IPL match.
The bench, on February 1, had agreed to hear the plea of Sreesanth. A division bench of the Kerala High Court had restored the ban on a petition filed by the BCCI against a single-judge bench’s order, lifting the life ban imposed on the 34-year-old pacer.
The bench had said there was no violation of natural justice against the cricketer and quashed the single bench order which was in Sreesanth’s favour. In its appeal, the BCCI had said the decision to ban the cricketer was taken based on the evidence against him.
The single-judge bench had on August 7 last year lifted the life-ban imposed on Sreesanth by the BCCI and also set aside all proceedings against him initiated by the board. All the 36 accused in the spot-fixing case, including Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila, were let off by a Patiala House court in July, 2015. The BCCI had, however, refused to alter its disciplinary decision even after the verdict.