AGENCIES
NEW DELHI, September 18
A bench headed by Justice T.S. Thakur said that it will hear the application in the near future. It, however, did not fix a date for hearing.
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for clarification on whether former President and ICC Chairman N. Srinivasan can participate in its meetings.
A bench led by Justice T.S. Thakur also agreed to hear BJP leader Dr. Subramanian Swamy’s plea to intervene in the litigation. It however did not give a specific date for the hearing.
The Board had moved the apex court on Mr. Srinivasan’s claims that there is no conflict of interest associated to him as he has already divested all the stakes of India Cements Ltd, the company that owned team Chennai Super Kings (CSK), which was banned by the Supreme Court-appointed Justice (retired) R.M. Lodha committee in connection with the Indian Premier League betting controversy.
Mr. Srinivasan has maintained that he has no shares or conflict of interest or commercial interest in the CSK. He said that he continues to hold meetings as the ICC Chairman.The BCCI has asked the court to clarify whether, in the current situation, any conflict of interest would arise with Mr. Srinivasan’s presence in the meetings.
It has asked the court to either resolve the issue or refer the question to the Justice Lodha panel to decide the matter.
Meanwhile, Dr. Swamy, in his intervention application, claimed he has enough material to prove that the motive behind the litigation was to “vitiate control” from Mr. Srinivasan.
His application said the real intention is to “give power to a group of people who are scam-tainted, corrupt and in violation of various other penal laws and with connections to undesirable elements in Dubai and London”.
“The whole object behind raising this issue in this litigation is to shift the base of cricket from Chennai to Mumbai, which would enable them to take control of the game in their hands for their ulterior and malicious motives,” Dr. Swamy contended.
In its January 22 judgment on the IPL controversy, the apex court had held that “the BCCI shall hold elections within six weeks in accordance with the prevalent rules and regulations subject to the condition that no one who has any commercial interest in the BCCI events (including Mr. N. Srinivasan) shall be eligible for contesting the elections for any post whatsoever”.
It had observed that the disqualification would hold good till “the person concerned divests his commercial interest or till the Justice Lodha committee considers and awards suitable punishment, “whichever is later”.
