BCCI 'deliberately' misconstrued order to oust Rahul Johri from SGM: CoA to SC

The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators on Wednesday took a jibe at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for deliberately misconstruing the apex court's order to bar CEO Rahul Johri and the legal team from attending the Special General Meeting (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 apex court's expression of 'etc' to bring in a series of issues aimed at unraveling the fundamental core of reforms mandated by the Supreme 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.

Meanwhile, the CoA also directed that the existing BCCI office bearers -CK Khanna, Amitabh Choudhary and Anirudh Chaudhary-- 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.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had restrained former BCCI chief N. Srinivasan and Niranjan Shah from attending the SGM, scheduled to be held on July 26, as a nominee of state association.

The apex court bench, headed by Justice Dipak Misra, had also directed that BCCI's SGM would only be attended by office bearers of state cricket associations.

Meanwhile, Srinivasan and Niranjan had submitted their replies to the notice that was issued to them by the Supreme Court for attending the BCCI SGM on June 26 despite being barred by the apex court.

The CoA, in its fourth report submitted to the top court, had earlier accused Srinivasan and Shah of creating disruptions in the June 26 SGM, which was convened to build consensus amongst BCCI members of the adoption of Lodha Panel reforms.

The report had stated that such disqualified persons have vested interests, because "if the judgment is implemented, such disqualified persons will have to relinquish control over their respective state/ member associations."

-ANI