SC blocks Srinivasan, Shah from BCCI SGM
new delhi — The Supreme Court on Monday blocked former BCCI president N. Srinivasan and former secretary Niranjan Shah from attending the Special General Body Meeting (SGM) of the board, scheduled for July 26, as it directed that only office-bearers of the state associations will be participating in the meeting.
The apex court indicated that it may consider the plea against its earlier order holding one-stateone-vote and denying Maharashtra and Gujarat more than one vote in the BCCI. The court was also likely to consider the plea by the Railways, Tri-Services and the Association of Indian Universities contesting their being stripped of their voting rights and given the status of associate members.
“One-state-one-vote may not be a good idea in India, whether Railways, Association of Indian Universities, or Maharashtra, Saurashtra, Baroda,” said Justice Dipak Misra asking contending parties Committee of Administrators headed by former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai, Srinivasan and others not to adopt an adversarial approach.
Directing that only the office bearers of the State cricket associations would be participating in the SGM, the bench of Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said that the SGM will also deliberate on the implementation of the R.M. Lodha Committee’s recommendations as far as practicable.
However, the court made it clear that once the top court has accepted the Justice Lodha Committee recommendations, then it is the obligation of the state associations to implement them.
As senior counsel Kapil Sibal, appearing for Srinivasan, told the court that they were resisting certain recommendations as they were not comfortable with them, amicus curiae Gopal Subramaniam said: “There can’t be wholesale defiance of the Lodha Committee recommendations.” Subramaniam told the court that Srinivasan and former secretary Niranjan Shah, who were disqualified from being office bearers of BCCI or even the state associations, can’t circumvent the top court judgement by participating in the meeting of policymaking general body as nominee of the state associations.
As Sibal said that there was nothing in the rules framed by the Justice Lodha Committee that barred Srinivasan and Shah from attending the SGM meeting as nominee of the state associations, Subramaniam contended that it was the spirit of the judgement that had to be respected and complied with.—