New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked BCCI’s acting president CK Khanna, acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary and treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry to appear before it and explain their failure to comply with the court’s order to implement the Lodha Committee’s recommendations. A three-judge Bench, headed by Justice Dipak Misra, expressed its displeasure over the non-implementation of its order and asked the trio to appear personally before it on September 19. “The whole problem is that nothing has been implemented. We will issue show-cause notices and direct for personal presence,” Justice Misra said after amicus curiae Gopal Subramanium pointed out that nothing had been done to implement the recommendations.
The Bench also agreed to hear Cricket Association of Bihar’s plea accusing Choudhary of disregarding the court’s directions by inviting disqualified cricket administrators to the BCCI meetings.
Subramanium alleged that BCCI CEO Rahul Johri, who was accompanied by the legal advisor of the Committee of Administrators (CoA), was not allowed to attend the July 26 special general body meeting, wherein none of the recommendations and the directions passed by the top court were implemented.
Senior advocate Puneet Bali, representing the board officials, contested Subramanium’s submissions saying that after the July 26 meeting, the board officials had sent out e-mails to everyone concerned that all recommendations must be complied with. “You have expressed your helplessness. Beseechment is not the solution,” the Bench responded.
The Bench directed CoA to prepare a draft constitution of BCCI in terms of its earlier judgments on the Lodha panel recommendations. “We think it appropriate that CoA shall prepare a draft constitution in terms of the main judgement as well as the July 24 order of this court,” it said, adding that the copies of the draft constitution be handed over to all the parties. In its fifth status report, CoA had sought the removal of Khanna, Choudhary and Chaudhry.