BCCI file appeal in Supreme Court against Bombay HC decision on IPL panel

The BCCI has filed a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court appealing the Bombay High Court’s order that had held its two-member probe panel investigating the allegations of spot-fixing and betting in the IPL was illegal and unconstitutional. The board had said on Friday that it planned to appeal the High Court’s decision. Meanwhile the Bihar Cricket Association had filed a caveat with the Supreme Court making it part of any appeal by the BCCI. The Bombay High Court’s verdict was handed down on 30 July, two days after the two member-probe panel comprising retired Tamil Nadu High Court judges T. Jayaram Chouta and R. Balasubramanian handed in its report clearing Gurunath Meiyappan, board president N Srinivasan’s son-in-law, and Raj Kundra, the co-owner of Rajasthan Royals, of all the allegations against them. That set the stage for Srinivasan’s return as BCCI president, after he had stepped aside while the probe was on. However, the High Court’s decision put a spoke in all those plans, leading to a contentious IPL Governing Council meeting on 2 August. [caption id=“attachment_1010743” align=“aligncenter” width=“380”] The BCCI has appealed to the Supreme Court over the IPL probe panel. Getty Images.[/caption] Srinivasan had a lengthy meeting with senior BCCI members Arun Jaitley and Rajeev Shukla before the IPL Governing Council meeting and was reportedly convinced that he could not return in light of the Bombay High Court’s order, which included several strictures that named Srinivasan as potentially orchestrating the appointment of the Judges on the panel. At the meeting, BCCI senior vice-president Arun Jaitley, a former union law minister, read out the High Court’s order and it was decided that the board would file a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court. The scheduled working committee meeting that was supposed to follow the GC meeting was then cancelled. The board claimed it was cancelled on technical grounds as the agenda was not set and it was not mentioned as emergent working committee, but sources said it was cancelled because there was nothing to discuss. The meeting had been convened to ratify the probe panel’s report and cement Srinivasan’s return, but since the report had been ruled legally null and void, had no purpose Srinivasan and interim BCCI chief Jagmohan Dalmiya were called by the IPL Governing Council after the meeting and were informed about the decision to file an SLP in the Supreme Court. Ratnarkar Shetty, the board’s chief administrative offer, said the working committee will next meet after the court case is over. “The next working committee will be after the court case is over. Till then Mr. Dalmiya will carry on as the interim president,” said Shetty. With inputs from PTI