The Supreme Court on Wednesday spelt relief to many cricket associations and clubs across the country by lifting its nearly two-year-old blanket ban on other courts from either entertaining or proceeding with any case or dispute regarding the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) or State bodies.
The court had passed the restraining order on March 14 last year while appointing amicus curiae, senior advocate P.S. Narasimha, to mediate with the BCCI and cricket associations on issues as varied as release of funds to claims by members that the new BCCI Constitution had “gone beyond” the Justice R.M. Lodha Committee reforms in cricket administration.
“The restraint on all courts to entertain cases need not continue,” a Bench led by Justice L. Nageswara Rao said on Wednesday.
The order was prompted chiefly by a plea from three regional cricket clubs, represented by advocates Purnima Krishna and M.F. Philip, who argued that their membership in the Thrissur District Cricket Association was terminated by the Kerala Cricket Association without an opportunity for hearing.
The clubs had argued that the local courts had refrained from taking up their case against the Association because of the general ban from the Supreme Court.
They said “small regional clubs like them neither have the fortitude nor the financial capacity to approach the Supreme Court”.
The hearing saw the Bench peruse the report submitted by Mr. Narasimha, which comprehensively listed the various applications that have been successfully mediated, others which have become infructuous, those which can be disposed of and some which needs to be taken up at a later stage.
