SC summons BCCI top brass for delay in acting on Lodha report

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court came down hard on the Board of Control for Cricket in India on Wednesday and ordered drafting of a new constitution so that the reforms suggested by its panel were carried out.

The court also issued showcause notices to the board’s acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary, treasurer Anirudh Chaudhary and acting president CK Khanna, asking them why the recommendations of the Lodha panel had not been implemented a year after the Supreme Court order. The three have to be in the court on September 19.

“A close scrutiny of applications (by state associations) reveal that under the guise of seeking recall (of the Lodha panel recommendations), they are in fact challenging the principal judgment. This is clearly an abuse of the process of this honourable court,” Gopal Subramanium, who is assisting the court in the case, told the SC.

State cricket associations have repeatedly approached the court saying the panel’s suggestions are against their constitutions.

The Lodha committee has called for an overhaul of the cricket administration.

SC ASKS COMMITTEE OF ADMINISTRATORS TO MAKE A NEW DRAFT CONSTITUTION FOR THE INDIAN CRICKET BOARD

To overcome the hurdle, a three-judge bench led by justice Dipak Misra, ordered a new BCCI constitution after Subramanium told the court no reforms had been carried out.

The court had told the board to adopt the suggestions as far as “practicable” at its special general meeting (SGM) on July 26.

But far from implementing the reforms, the BCCI office-bearers didn’t allow board CEO Rahul Johri, through whom the courtappointed committee of administrators (CoA) is to oversee the changes, to attend the SGM.

CoA chairman Vinod Rai has been saying in the absence of a working committee, the onus of managing the board lay with them and not the office-bearers who were possibly trying to limit Johri’s role.

Petitioner Cricket Association of Bihar also complained that Chaudhary had disregarded the court’s direction by inviting disqualified administrators to board’s meetings.

The court said it would first go by the CoA’s fourth status report and then look into the contempt petition filed by CAB.

The report was submitted in July.