Above: Niranjan Shah (left) and N Srinivasan (Photo: UNI)
As expected, the overarching presence of expelled BCCI president N Srinivasan was removed from the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) Special General Body meeting, scheduled for July 26, by the Supreme Court on Monday (July 24).
The court, however, reserved its decision on whether Srinivasan and Niranjan Shah, another expelled member—through superannuation—can attend the board’s August 18 meeting as representatives of their state bodies, the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association and the Saurashtra Cricket Association, respectively. Shah is also member of the special committee formed to oversee the implementation of the Lodha Committee recommendations.
The apex court bench, headed by Justice Dipak Misra, also has decided to see if it wants to change its stance on the one-state-one-vote policy. If the court does, it will be a minor victory for those who are against the Lodha Committee recommendations being adopted to the T at the board.
While Vinod Rai, chairman of the court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA), has complained to the court that Srinivasan and Shah had been attending board meetings as invitees and have been putting roadblocks on the path of the implementation of the Lodha Committee recommendations, Srini and Shah have criticized Rai’s actions as a witch hunt of sorts, being singled out despite there being others on the board who would also be similarly disqualified.
While Srinivasan was expelled in the wake of the 2013 IPL spot-fixing and betting scandal—which resulted in the Mudgal Commission and then the Lodha Committee—he is also over the Lodha panel recommended maximum age limit of 70 years.
The apex court on Monday said that only legitimate office bearers of the BCCI would be allowed to attend the meeting of July 26.
About the two, the CoA has told the court: “Such disqualified persons have a vested interest in stalling implementation of the Judgment.”
Both Srinivasan and Niranjan Shah were officially raising objections against the scheduling of the SGM.
—India Legal Bureau