NEW DELHI: India’s Supreme Court has agreed to reconsider the contentious ‘one state one vote’ mandate of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and has said that cricket associates in states which have played “historic roles” cannot be left out.
The SC on Tuesday also stated that while finalising the BCCI constitution, it may not restrict the number of selectors to three and impose eligibility criteria that selectors have to be Test players. According to the apex court, domestic giants such as Padmakar Shivalkar and Rajinder Goel, though they never broke into India’s Test team, still had a wealth of experience.
The SC added that until it finalised the BCCI constitution, no state association should hold elections.
In its seventh status report in the SC, the two-member SC-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) comprising Vinod Rai and Diana Edulji had recommended elections for fresh set of office-bearers by removing acting president CK Khanna, acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary and treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry, citing the end of their tenures as per the BCCI constitution. The CoA also asked for the SC’s direction on having an AGM without adoption of the new constitution as the per Justice Lodha Committee reforms.
In its status report, the CoA cited Rule 15 (i) of existing BCCI constitution which states: “The election of Office Bearers and vice-presidents shall be held at the AGM of the Board every year. The office bearers and vice president so elected will hold office for three years.”
On July 18, 2016, the SC had accepted the Lodha panel’s ‘one state one vote’ recommendation and relegated these bodies to associate membership without voting rights. It had also asked the three bodies each in Maharashtra and Gujarat to enjoy full membership with voting rights on rotation basis.