Supreme Court agree to hear fresh plea filed by BCCI's Joint Secretary Amitabh Chaudhary

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a fresh plea filed by BCCI’s Joint Secretary Amitabh Chaudhary, alleging that the court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) was flouting its order and not allowing the office bearers to perform their duties. A bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra assured Chaudhary’s counsel that it would communicate with the Chief Justice J.S. Khehar for early setting up of the bench, comprising justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud which has been hearing the matter relating to implementation of administrative reforms in the apex cricket body.

[caption id=“attachment_3304680” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representative photo. AFP[/caption] Senior advocate Puneet Bali, representing Chaudhary, sought early hearing of the interim application saying the BCCI office-bearers, who are not disqualified, are not being allowed to perform their assigned task.

He referred to the January 2 order and said the court, while removing Anurag Thakur and Ajay Shirke as President and Secretary of BCCI, had made clear that the CoA will supervise implementation of reforms and the senior-most Vice-President and the Joint Secretary will perform duties of President and Secretary respectively. Chaudhary, in his plea, alleged the CoA has now authorised BCCI CEO Rahul Johri to deal with legal matters and the cases filed by and against the cricket body. However, the BCCI Constitution provides that such powers would be exercised by its Secretary, the plea said,adding that several activities including the junior team selection are stuck up as the office-bearers are not allowed to function. Chaudhary said the four members of CoA, headed by former CAG Vinod Rai, are persons of proven credentials, but they are not following the apex court directions. The apex court, on January 2, had come down heavily on the defiant BCCI brass and Thakur and Shirke from the posts of President and Secretary respectively for “obstructing” and “impeding” its directions to overhaul governance in the cricket body. Later, it had appointed the four-member CoA to run the affairs of the BCCI and implement court-approved recommendations of the Justice R M Lodha panel on reforms in the cash-rich cricket body. Besides Rai, CoA has famous cricket historian Ramachandra Guha, Vikram Limaye, Managing Director of Infrastructure Development Fiance Company (IDFC) and former Indian women cricket captain Diana Edulji as members.