Published: Jul 11, 2017, 09:46 AM (IST)
Edited: Jul 11, 2017, 12:52 PM (IST)
The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) has been thoroughly disappointed with BCCI scrapping Tuesday’s Special General Meeting (SGM), and is set to submit the status report before the apex court on Tuesday, recommending the imposition of the new constitution (as per Lodha Committee recommendations) on the BCCI and state bodies. According to a CoA member, even after trying for 4 to 5 months to build consensus with BCCI, there has been no fruitful outcome out of that.
“We were actually very generously wanting to build up consensus and that’s why we were waiting for them (BCCI members) to hold the SGM. We held back (the status report) for that only. But now they are totally disruptive. We actually spent the last four-five months trying to build consensus, facing criticism in the process. See, we can’t enforce the new constitution on the BCCI or state associations. The court has to do it,” a CoA member told The Indian Express, adding: “The status report has asked for directions from the court, making it very clear that the CoA has tried everything possible but they (BCCI members) are not coming around, thereby making us recommend the imposition of the new constitution. Three-four elements in the entire BCCI are disrupting the process.” He also described the TNCA mail to the BCCI as “directly taking on the court”.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) has termed the SGM as “illegal” as it is said to have violated the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act, 1975, which clearly mentions that at least 10-day notice period should be served before conducting any such meeting – which didn’t happen in this case. As a result, the TNCA had asked the parent body to call off the SGM. It is learnt that two other state associations, namely Kerala and Saurashtra, have also joined the TNCA in making the demand.
“The Association would like to hereby lodge a protest to the convening of the Meeting at such a short notice of 2 days. Please note that calling for a Special General Meeting of the BCCI without providing the requisite notice of a minimum of 10 days is wrong and goes against the provisions of the BCCI Memorandum and Rules and Regulations. The Meeting, should it be convened on 11th July 2017, would be illegal and all decisions taken there would be of no consequence,” TNCA joint secretary R Palani had written to BCCI acting president CK Khanna, adding, “Convening an SGM in such a manner is in violation of the Provisions of the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act, 1975.”
He also mentioned that contravening the Societies Act might see the BCCI lose its registration and that it’s an “offence” as per law.
The BCCI had called the SGM to discuss the four ‘critical’ points – one state-one vote, three-member selection committee, cooling-off period for office-bearers, and powers given to the functioning of professionals and officials – in the Lodha Committee recommendations, which have been accepted by the Supreme Court in its July 18, 2016 order.
