SC reserves order on plea to replace BCCI top brass

The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its order on a plea for replacing the BCCI top brass with a set of administrators over their defiance to implement the Justice Lodha Committee recommendations.

However, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Anurag Thakur denied having made a request to the International Cricket Council to write to the BCCI that the Lodha panel’s intervention was like governmental interference.

Though the court expressed its reservation over the proposal made by the Lodha panel for removing the BCCI upper echelons, it indicated that other directions like imposing monetary sanctions on the top cricket body could be considered.“Should there be an embargo on withdrawal of money beyond a certain amount? Should they go to Justice Lodha panel whenever



they want to enter into a financial contract? We will examine all that,” a three-judge bench presided over by Chief Justice T S Thakur said.

The court said replacing the BCCI office-bearers with a body of administrators would be an “extreme option”. Other “equally effective” options would be considered, it added.

“We want to understand what are your genuine problems. But at every stage there appears to be defiance and obstruction,” the bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, asked senior advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for the BCCI.

The court said it could not help the BCCI unless it came clear on all the recommendations by the Lodha panel that the Board has accepted and also those which it would implement within a time frame.