Supreme Court rejects plea challenging ban on CSK

The final hope of redemption for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) team fluttered off after the Supreme Court of India rejected a petition by Bharatiya Janta Party leader Subramanian Swamy that challenged the 2-year ban imposed on CSK by the SC.

The Justice RM Lodha committee investigating the case under the guidance of the Apex court found that former CSK team Gurunath Meiyappan was involved in betting during the IPL 2013 season while he was in the position and had leaked information as well.

Today a bench headed by Chief Justice of India, TS Thakur rejected Swamy’s plea that said that since neither the team owner, the then BCCI president N Srinivasan nor any other member of CSK were found to be guilty by the committee the ban instigated by the Lodha panel was “illegal, arbitrary and unreasonable”.

Swamy said that he had no intentions of questioning the Lodha panel but at the same time opined that CSK was a victim of “conspiracy”. SC had also heard the case on October 4 but had reserved its decision then.

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The bench, that also had Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud believed that the major findings in the Lodha committee’s report imposing a ban on CSK and Rajasthan Royals (RR) has “become final” and there was no real point in digging back into it.

This is not the first time that the BJP leader went into the court of law to get CSK back in the IPL before it serves the ban period. He had filed a Public Interest Litigation in the Madras High Court but it had also dismissed it and that was when Swamy went on to file a plea in the SC.

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