CJI Dipak Misra says Gujarat and Maharashtra will be allowed to retain three cricket bodies each, but only one will vote at a time.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday said it would revisit the controversial ‘one state, one vote’ policy that it imposed on the regional affiliates of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
“Cricket associations that have played a historic role in developing the game cannot be left out,” Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra observed.
This means that states with more than one cricket association, such as Gujarat (Saurashtra, Gujarat, and Baroda) and Maharashtra (Mumbai, Maharashtra, and Vidarbha), will have voting rights on a rotational basis.
In its ruling, the SC said that while Gujarat and Maharashtra can continue to have three associations, only one of them can vote at a time.
The decision is virtually a reversal of the 2016 ruling by former CJI T.S. Thakur that clipped the wings of the cricketing body when it ordered the board to adopt the recommendations of a committee headed by former CJI R.M. Lodha.
After the ruling was delivered in spite of opposition from BCCI and its affiliate bodies, the government intervened and sought that the ruling be reviewed.
Former attorney general Mukul Rohatgi had claimed that the government was not heard by the court before the ruling was delivered. The government’s grouse was that the Lodha committee recommendations also effectively relegated the non-territorial members of the board to the status of associate members without voting rights.
These include the Kolkata-based National Cricket Club, the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai, and the three institutional members— the Railway Sports Promotion Board, the Services Sports Control Board and All India Universities.
The court had initially given the BCCI six months to implement the changes, but when the cricketing bodies resisted the move, timelines were constantly extended.
Subsequently, the court appointed a fresh Committee of Administrators, including former Comptroller and Auditor General of India Vinod Rai, IDBI Bank MD and CEO Vikram Limaye, former Indian women’s cricket captain Diana Edulji, and historian and writer Ramachandra Guha, to run the BCCI temporarily and implement the court-mandated reforms.
Guha and Limaye later resigned from their positions.
The apex court praised the efforts of the administrators for bringing in transparency and accountability in the functioning of BCCI. The case will be heard next on 11 May.