Sack BCCI officials, CoA urges Supreme Court

Sabi Hussain

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 16

The Committee of Administrators (CoA) has demanded the ouster of BCCI’s acting president CK Khanna, acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary and treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry for not implementing the Lodha Committee reforms. In January this year, the court had sacked the then BCCI president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke for stalling the Lodha reforms.

In yet another damning status report submitted by CoA to the Supreme Court, the committee tore into the BCCI office-bearers, saying “they have demonstrated scant regard for the directions issued by CoA and continue to flout the same with impunity”. The report becomes significant in the light of the fact that the Supreme Court is hearing the matter just two days later on August 18.

What CoA is particularly unhappy about is the manner in which BCCI conducted its Special General Meeting (SGM) on July 26. The Supreme Court had directed BCCI to implement all reforms “barring the issues which have been raised pertaining to membership (read one-state one-vote), number of members in the selection committee and the concept of associate membership”. But BCCI defied the orders in its SGM and listed out five major “impractical” recommendations which were difficult to implement. Among them was the key recommendation related to age, tenure and cooling-off period. The Lodha Committee chief, former CJI  RM Lodha, had described this recommendation as the “heart, lungs and kidneys” of the reforms.

Unfit to continue

“The conduct of the office-bearers is such as to demonstrate they are unfit to continue and ought to be removed,” read the status report, signed by CoA chairman Vinod Rai and member Diana Edulji.  

“….removal of the office-bearers around one month prior to the elections in September 2017 will ensure that the said elections are free and fair. Accordingly, CoA submits that there is a need to direct that the existing BCCI office-bearers shall forthwith cease and desist from being associated with the working of BCCI. Describing these issues as impracticable or difficult is nothing short of a gross abuse/contempt of the Court order. CoA submits that unless this Court issues appropriate directions, the judgment will remain a writ in sand and the implementation of the reforms mandated by this Court will never see the light of the day,” CoA said in the report.

No minutes of the SGM

Apart from BCCI’s opposition to the reforms, CoA was infuriated by the board’s refusal to share the ‘minutes of the meeting’. “Either the office-bearers are themselves not in agreement on what transpired at the SGM or they are acting out a charade in order to avoid communicating the decision taken at the SGM to CoA.”

Give Johri the control

CoA was also miffed with BCCI’s decision to arbitrarily ask CEO Rahul Johri to leave the SGM, despite CoA mandating him to attend the proceedings. CoA was of the view that the July 24 order of the Supreme Court was “deliberately misconstrued” to keep Johri and BCCI’s administrative and legal staff out of the meeting.

CoA requested the SC that the “governance, management and administration” of BCCI be handed over to it and a professional group headed by Johri till the elections were held.