The Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed a public interest litigation petition filed by a Delhi-based woman seeking a direction to the Centre to restrain the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and its affiliated bodies and associations from claiming to be official representatives of the country during international matches.
A Division Bench of Justices S. Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad rejected the case after questioning the locus standi of the petitioner R. Geeta Rani, a homemaker, to file the case in which she had also sought directions to initiate legal action against members of BCCI for having represented the country so far in a host of international matches.
Pointing out that the BCCI was now being managed by a Committee of Administrators appointed by the Supreme Court in January 2017 and that the apex court was still seized of a case related to the board’s management, the Division Bench said it would not be appropriate for the High Court to conduct parallel proceedings on the same issue. Stating that none of the activities of the board was illegal as claimed by the petitioner, the judges said such cases must not be encouraged.
New committee
The petitioner had also urged the court to order the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports to a create a body of its own and register it with the International Cricket Council.
Only such body should be authorised to select cricket players for representing the Indian team in international matches, she insisted.
However, senior counsel P.R. Raman, representing BCCI, contended that the petitioner had no right to file such a case. He refuted the charge that the BCCI was misusing the national flag.
