It was a little over one month ago that the Supreme Court appointed four-member Committee of Administrators (CoA) was given the mandate to make the Board of Control for Cricket India (BCCI) enforce the Justice Lodha Committee’s reforms in cricket report, that was endorsed with a few medications by the apex court on July 18, 2016, and also oversee the BCCI’s day-to-day affairs through its Chief Executive Officer, Rahul Johri.

On January 2, 2017, a Supreme Court bench comprising the then Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur and justices Dr. D.Y. Chandrachud and A.M. Khanwilkar had said in their order: “the CoA shall also ensure that the directions contained in the judgement of this Court dated 18 July 2016 are fulfilled and to adopt all necessary and consequential steps for that purpose.”

Further the apex court also said: “Upon the CoA as nominated by this Court assuming charge, the existing office-bearers shall function subject to the supervision and control of the CoA. The Committee of administrators would have the power to issue all appropriate directions to facilitate due supervision and control.

After nominating Vinod Rai (former Comptroller and Auditor General of India), Ramachandra Guha (cricket historian) Vikram Limaye (Md & CEO, IDFC Ltd.) and Diana Edulji (former captain of the Indian women’s team) to the CoA on January 30, the apex court said that Rai shall be the Chairman of the CoA and the BCCI CEO shall report to CoA which shall supervise the management of BCCI.

The two orders clearly meant that the CoA was to be fully in charge of the BCCI, and in the last 30 odd days, it met a few times, changed its legal counsels, nominated Limaye for the ICC Board meetings, engaged important people connected with the BCCI like Amarchand & Mangaldas (leading law and accounting firm), Gokhale & Sathe Chartered Accountants (BCCI’s Internal Auditor), staff at the BCCI’s head quarters at the Cricket Centre here, studied the Deloitte report on the functioning of majority of the full member associations, conducted the IPL auction for 2017 and other matters related to the IPL, cleared outstanding payments to Indian and overseas parties and also announced the BCCI award winners.

In its first status report submitted to the Supreme Court on March 4, the CoA has stated that the BCCI has not adopted the new Memorandum of Association and Rules and Regulations and it can be completed only after the full member associations amend their Constitution to bring it in terms with the MoU and regulations recommended by Lodha Committee. The CoA has told the Supreme Court that elections have not been conducted by majority of the full members.

The report published on the BCCI website has also incorporated the minutes of the BCCI meeting held at the Cricket Centre last year to consider the Lodha Committee recommendations (MoU/RR) clause by clause and other issues related to compliance on the part of the State associations.

A BCCI official welcomed CoA’s decision to post the report on the website. “They should also make public the full Deloitte report. Let everything be transparent. None of the associations know what Deloitte has said about them.’’

A point raised by majority of full members of the BCCI, on a point related to the enforcement of July 2016 order, is that “rights of members of the State associations under Article 19 (1) (c ) of the constitution of India continues to remain protected.” Touching upon this argument raised by the BCCI earlier, the Supreme Court said in its judgement of July 18 “what is, however important is that the right under article 19 (1) (c) does not extend to guaranteeing to the citizens the concomitant right to pursue their goals and objects uninhibited by any regulatory or other control. The legal position in this regard is settled by several decisions of this Court.”

Vinod Rai informed a gathering at an event in Singapore on Saturday that the reforms would be completed in four-five months. The CoA could be waiting for the apex court to clear certain matters before making the next move.

Courtesy: The Hindu