BCCI vs Supreme Court: Justice Lodha claims board got full chance to argue against reforms

New Delhi: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) got full opportunity to argue against the recommendations made by the Supreme Court-appointed Lodha committee, said the panel chief Justice (Retd) RM Lodha after seeking removal of the board’s top brass in a status report to the apex court. Lodha said the verdict of the Supreme Court, after the panel filed its status report which has called for the removal of BCCI president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke for non-compliance of the apex court directions. The BCCI had filed a review petition challenging the sweeping reforms proposed by the Lodha panel, also seeking recuse of the Chief Justice of India from the five-judge bench which will review its verdict. [caption id=“attachment_3024688” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Justice RM Lodha. PTI[/caption] “Every recommendation which was not acceptable to the BCCI was opposed and they had full opportunity to argue. After hearing them, the Supreme Court has accepted nobody undermines their capacity, capability, we all bow to the Supreme Court,” said Lodha. Asked if he is open to a dialogue with the BCCI to further discuss the recommendations, Lodha said: “We are no party to the litigation, there is no question of the dialogue. We are simply to implement the Supreme Court’s judgement now. “We held a meeting on 9th August (with the BCCI officials) and three weeks before that meeting, intimation was sent to Mr Anurag Thakur and Mr Ajay Shirke. We wanted to discuss. We invited them on our own, we sent communication to them. One of them came (Shirke), the other (Thakur) didn’t,” he said. Lodha said the panel has not specifically asked for the removal of Thakur and Shirke but the entire set of office-bearers. “We are not concerned with names, we are only concerned with whether existing office-bearers be superseded and panel of arbitrators be put in their place. The persons who are in charge of the affairs in the BCCI should be superseded.” It remains to be seen what BCCI does at its Special General Meeting (SGM) on 30 September, the day it faces a first set of the deadlines set by the Lodha panel. The panel submitted the status report after observing violation of Supreme Court directives in the BCCI AGM held earlier in the month. “I am nobody to examine their mood (in BCCI), we have only examined the decisions taken by them in their AGM, we had already clarified to them that AGM can go ahead and they can discuss routine measures for the year 2015-16. No decision should be taken concerning 2016-17. “Certain decisions have been taken which are direct in conflict with what we directed BCCI to do. Therefore it was necessary for us to bring it to the notice of the Supreme Court that these are the violations,” added Lodha.