Supreme Court restrains Srinivasan from taking charge as BCCI chief

N Srinivasan was on Friday restrained from assuming charge of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, if elected to the post, by the Supreme Court, which allowed the Board to hold its proposed Annual General Meeting scheduled for Sunday.

"In the meanwhile, the proposed AGM of BCCI will be held on September 29 and the election in the AGM can also be held. In case Srinivasan is elected as President, he will not take charge until further orders," a bench comprising Justices A K Patnaik and J S Kehar said.

The bench took strong exception to Srinivasan still holding charge of the BCCI when his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan has been charge sheeted in connection with the IPL spot-fixing case.

"Why he is in charge (as the BCCI president) if his son-in-law has been charge sheeted?

"Why you (Srinivasan) are so keen to be elected?" the bench said, making it clear that he will not take charge as Board president till the matter is decided by it.

During the hearing, the bench also questioned the holding of elections when the apex court was seized of the matter.

"We do not know anyone. We only know cricket. We only know BCCI," the bench observed. It posted the matter for further hearing on Monday.

The court's order came on the plea of Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB) seeking interim injunction restraining Srinivasan from contesting for the post of BCCI pPresident in the AGM, to be held in Chennai.

CAB has sought a direction to BCCI that Srinivasan be not inducted in any committee of the Board till the matter pending in the apex court is decided. 

The court had earlier posted the hearing for October on cross appeals filed by the BCCI and CAB against the Bombay high court's verdict declaring as illegal the probe panel appointed by the Board to look into the spot-fixing scandal.

It had, on August 30, heard the petition filed by Aditya Verma, secretary, CAB, challenging the high court's order refusing to appoint a fresh committee to probe the scam.

The court had also issued notices to the BCCI, Srinivasan, his company India Cements, which owns IPL team Chennai Super Kings, and Rajasthan Royals on the plea.

CAB has pleaded that when the high court declared the panel of two judges as unconstitutional, it should have appointed a fresh committee to look into the issue.

The apex court had, on August 7, refused to grant interim stay on the high court verdict, derailing the plan of Srinivasan to return as chief of BCCI.

Srinivasan had stepped aside from discharging his duties as BCCI president in the light of spot-fixing and betting scandal which allegedly involved Chennai Super Kings team's former principal Meiyappan.

The high court order had come on July 30, just two days after the panel comprising two former judges of the Madras high court Justices T Jayarama Chouta and R Balasubramanian, submitted its report giving a clean chit to all those against whom the probe was conducted.

The panel had gone into the charges against India Cements Ltd, Meiyappan and Raj Kundra, co-owner of Rajasthan Royals.

The panel was set up by BCCI and IPL Governing Council after the surfacing of the betting and spot-fixing scandal.

Photograph: N Srinivasan