The Supreme Court on Monday refused to advance the date of the Annual General Meeting of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) fixed for November 20.
A Bench of Justices T.S. Thakur and Ibrahim Kalifulla did not accept the submissions made on behalf of the Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB) that since the BCCI had postponed the AGM to November, the Board was now without any office-bearer.
The Bench posted the CAB’s application for advancing the AGM for hearing to November 10 along with the main matter relating to the probe into the role of Gurunath Meiyappan in fixing IPL matches.
Appearing for the CAB, counsel Nalini Chidambaram submitted that the BCCI flouted its constitution by deferring the AGM by almost two months. She alleged that as per the Supreme Court orders, ICC president N. Srinivasan could not contest the BCCI elections and to facilitate his return, the AGM had been postponed. She said the continuance of the existing working committee members was illegal.
Senior counsel Aryama Sundaram appearing for the BCCI questioned the CAB’s locus standi and said the CAB, which was not even a member of the BCCI, should not be bothered about the AGM. Justice Thakur told Ms. Chidambaram: “Let us wait for the probe committee report. We are bothered about the allegations of spot-fixing and betting, and not about the AGM. If the probe committee exonerates Mr. Srinivasan he can contest, but if elections are held now he will be disqualified. Your [CAB] real purpose of filing this petition is to prevent Mr. Srinivasan from contesting.”
