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BCCI’s Plan to Dilute Reforms Will Amount to Ridiculing Supreme Court: Lodha Panel Secretary
BCCI's proposal to change the reforms surfaced on Sunday when new secretary Jay Shah gave out the agenda for the board's annual general meeting to be held in Mumbai on December 1.
12 November 2019 • 3:10 PM
If the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) does intend on changing the reforms mandated by the Supreme Court, it will mean that the Sourav Ganguly-led brigade are ridiculing the country’s highest judicial authority, said Lodha Committee secretary Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who had a pivotal role in drafting the revamp.
Sankaranarayanan reckons that all the efforts taken by the apex court will go down the drain.
“If this is permitted to be done and if it remains unchallenged in court and the Supreme Court does not either have a challenge before it or it does not take up suo motu, it will mean ridiculing of the Supreme Court and everything that it did over the years,” he told ESPNCricinfo.
BCCI’s proposal to change the reforms surfaced on Sunday when new secretary Jay Shah gave out the agenda for the board’s annual general meeting to be held in Mumbai on December 1.
Among the significant amendments include altering the rules concerning the cooling-off period for office-bearers, relaxing various disqualification criteria and removing the need for any changes to the constitution needing approval from the Supreme Court.
“It will completely mean going back to square one as far as cricket administration and reforms are concerned. Most of the significant changes would have ceased to exist,” he said.
According to Sankaranarayanan, if these dilutions are adopted, they might be challenged in the court.
“They are trying to imply that they will no longer need the Supreme Court’s imprimatur when it (BCCI) makes changes (to the constitution),” he said.
“It makes no difference if the amendment is unanimous…in my view the court will have a role because the court had a role all this while. It was specific when it approved the initial reforms (in 2016), then it approved the constitution that was drafted and submitted by the Committee of Administrators (CoA) last year,” he said.
“They could possibly try and argue that, ‘Look, the Supreme Court has not barred us from amending our own constitution so we are more than capable of amending it and making all sorts of changes to it.’ That is a narrow way of looking at things.
“They will somehow ensure whatever is left after Supreme Court itself had reversed much of the (original reforms) so that old cliques can continue to operate in a big way,” he added.
Sankaranarayanan was the secretary of the Lodha Committee, which was appointed by the apex court in 2015. The committee was led by former Chief Justice of India RM Lodha, along with former Supreme Court Justices RV Raveendran and Ashok Bhan.