Supreme Court dismisses BCCI's review petition

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a review petition filed by BCCI, which asked the court to consider a review of the verdict passed on July 18. The judiciary body had accepted the recommendations made by the Justice Lodha-led panel which made a wide range of suggestions for BCCI to implement.

In the order passed on July 18, the court had agreed the reforms suggested by former Chief Justice of India R M Lodha-led panel which had made widespread ideas to improve the administration of the game in the country and make it cleaner. Some of the recommendation were a bar on ministers and civil servants and those above 70 from becoming its members; one state one vote; cooling off period as the three points of major contention.

Some of the most important reforms are one state-one vote, one person-one post and a 70-year age limit for office bearers. But in the months since, BCCI have been reluctant to implement these three important recommendations while the board accepted small reforms at its recent Special General Meeting (SGM).

The Court on Monday decided to consider imposing monetary sanctions on the BCCI until the board implements the reforms mooted by the panel. The court reserved its orders on issues such as fixing a limit on money the BCCI could use, and seeking the Lodha panel’s approval for all financial contracts and agreements.

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The court also has an option to appoint independent administrators in place of the current office holders but that plan has been considered as an “extreme option”. The court had barred BCCI from handing funds to state associations with some state bodies disallowed from using these funds.