SC issues show cause notice to BCCI office bearers over delay in Lodha reforms

The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued show cause notice to senior Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) officials, including acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary, acting president CK Khanna and treasurer Anirudh Chaudhary and has asked them to explain why the Lodha recommendations have not been implemented.

The apex court has directed that the trio must be present on September 19 on which the matter will be next heard.

Amicus Curiae Gopal Subramanian told a three-judge apex court bench, headed by Justice Dipak Misra, that the BCCI hasn't implemented anything of July 24 order.

In that order, the top court had asked the BCCI to adopt the Lodha Panel suggestions as far as "practicable" in the July 26 Special General Meeting (SGM).

The Vinod Rai-led Committee of Administrators (CoA), in its fifth status report, on August 16 pulled up the BCCI for deliberately misconstruing the apex court's order to bar CEO Rahul Johri and the legal team from attending the SGM held on July 26.

In their fifth status report submitted to the apex court, the CoA said that the BCCI officials also used the Supreme Court's expression of 'etc' to bring in a series of issues aimed at unraveling the fundamental core of reforms mandated sby the apex court.

"First, the CEO of BCCI as well as the administrative staff including the legal team was asked to leave the meeting on the basis that they are not office bearers. Secondly, the totally neutral expression 'etc' was treated as an excuse to bring in a series of issues aimed at unraveling the fundamental core of the reforms mandated by this Hon'ble Court including disqualification of office bearers, constitution of apex council, clear demarcation of functions, powers, duties and obligations between professional management and Apex Council, etc," the report said.

The CoA had also directed that Khanna, Amitabh and Anirudh be disallowed from being associated with the working of the country's cricket board.

The committee also called for a separate committee to commission a forensic audit of each state association under three-member committee of a former Supreme Court judge.

In the June 26 SGM meeting, the BCCI informed that a seven-member committee was formed to see how the Supreme Court appointed-Lodha Panel recommendations are implemented by the board in the best possible and swiftest manner.

The committee was to be headed by Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Rajeev Shukla, with BCCI acting secretary as its convenor.

The other members of the committee were Sourav Ganguly, T.C. Mathew, Naba Bhattacharjee, Jay Shah and Anirudh Chaudhary.

-ANI