SC chides BCCI for not doing funding audit

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, June 30

The Indian cricket board (BCCI) has, yet again, opposed the sweeping reforms recommended by the Justice RM Lodha Committee. Yet again, the Supreme Court has firmly told BCCI that there is no way it could oppose the Lodha Committee reforms because it is selecting and fielding the Indian team “on behalf of the nation”.

The Supreme Court had appointed the Justice Lodha Committee in the wake of the 2013 betting and spot-fixing scandal in the IPL, which was sought to be swept under the carpet by BCCI. A Supreme Court Bench comprising Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justice FMI Kalifulla made the remarks as BCCI’s senior counsel KK Venugopal made his concluding arguments opposing the reforms. The Supreme Court is bound to deliver the judgment in this case by July 22, when Justice Kalifulla will retire.

BCCI’s autonomy 

Venugopal said BCCI enjoyed autonomy guaranteed under Article 19(1)(c) of the Constitution, and added that this should not be disturbed in the name of reforms. He pleaded that BCCI was against at least nine major reforms. The list includes the recommendation of one-state one-vote, bar on ministers and government officials on being office-bearers, age cap on officials, tenure restrictions and cap, ban on holding concurrent positions in BCCI and state units, and audit of BCCI’s accounts by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India.

GCA corruption case

The Bench was told that office-bearers of the Goa Cricket Association (GCA), which in the last five years had received Rs 141 crore from BCCI, had been recently arrested on the charges of misappropriation of funds. Amicus curiae and senior advocate Gopal Subramaniam briefed the Bench about the arrest of the president, secretary and treasurer of GCA.

The Bench referred to a communication by BCCI to its state associations, which read that “members are now required” to furnish the details of the utilisation of funds given BCCI. The Bench then asked the BCCI counsel: “Why did you not require (this) earlier?”

“Now since May 10, you have been seeking utilisation certificates but what happened before that? Why were you sleeping all these years? Why were utilisation certifications not sought? You were disbursing funds without the utilisation certificates,” the Bench said.

“You must ask your auditors to go into the aspects of utilisation of funds by each state association. Take instructions and inform whether they have been asked to conduct performance audit. Some amounts must have been spent and some amounts must have been misappropriated,” the Bench observed.

Thakur chargesheet

Senior advocate Nalini Chidambaram, appearing on behalf of the Cricket Association of Bihar, contended that since BCCI president Anurag Thakur had a chargesheet pending against him, he was ineligible to hold a post in BCCI, as per BCCI’s rules. She said that despite the Supreme Court’s efforts to restore people’s faith in the sport, BCCI had elected Thakur as its president despite there being a chargesheet against him for the alleged misuse of land at the Dharamsala cricket stadium.