TOP COURT WANTS APOLOGY FROM ANURAG THAKUR
The Supreme Court asked former BCCI president Anurag Thakur on Friday to tender an “unconditional, unequivocal” and “categorical” apology to get relief from the contempt proceedings initiated against him.
The Supreme Court on Friday asked former Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Anurag Thakur to tender an ‘unconditional, unequivocal and categorical apology’ to get relief from the contempt proceedings against him.
The apex court bench comprising justices Dipak Misra, A M Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud directed him to file a “onepage short affidavit” tendering apology, making it clear that it was not going to consider his earlier affidavit of apology.
“We will grant you one more opportunity. We suggest that you file a one-page affidavit in categorical language that you tender an unequivocal and unconditional apology for the misinformation or miscommunication that happened,” the bench said.
The apex court also asked Thakur to be present on July 14 to tender the apology.
The bench indicated that it was willing to accept the apology and close the contempt proceedings against Thakur, a BJP MP from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh.
Senior advocate P S Patwalia, appearing for Thakur, said though his client was willing to tender an unconditional apology, he had a very good case on merit through which it can be proved that he did no wrong. “I am ready to tender an unconditional apology. I already did so. The problem is that the impression should not be construed that I did some wrong,” Patwalia said, on behalf of Thakur. Senior advocate Gopal Subramanium, who is assisting the court as amicus curiae said if the court is magnanimous in granting pardon to Thakur, then he has nothing to say, but the apology should be unqualified and explicit in terms.
The bench, however, said it would not go into the merit of the case. The court had initiated contempt proceedings against Thakur on January 2 for filing false affidavit over writing to the International Cricket Council (ICC) on the issue of BCCI’s autonomy.PTI