Jadeja's ban goes before arbitrator
The Board of Control for Cricket in India and cricketer Ajay Jadeja agreed to settle the issue of the five-year ban on the latter for match-fixing charges through arbitration and withdrew their cases in the Delhi high court.
"The appellant (BCCI) and Jadeja have suggested that let
the matter be referred to the sole arbitrator, Justice J K
Mehra, retired judge of this court. We order accordingly," a
high court division bench, comprising Justice Usha Mehra and
Justice R C Jain, said in its order.
The issue is expected to be placed before the arbitrator
shortly as per the mutual agreement between the two parties.
The court made it clear that its order, passed in the
"special circumstances of the case will not be treated as a
precedent in any other case of whatsoever nature".
The court vacated all its interim directions issued in
the case, including a single judge bench order of September
17, 2001, holding that Jadeja's petition against the BCCI, challenging the ban, is maintainable and it needs to be heard on merits.
The court said both the BCCI and Jadeja had agreed that they
would not question the powers of the Central government and the
CBI before the arbitrator.
After completion of initial procedural formalities of
filing documents, the arbitrator "will set down the matter for
hearing and dispose it, as far as possible within two months",
the court said, adding that the arbitrator would fix his fees
himself.
It said Jadeja would have a right to approach the court
if any of his rights to agitate survive.
"The rights of the petitioner, if any survives, he can agitate
the same," the court said.
Jadeja had challenged the five-year ban on him on grounds that it was based on BCCI's legal officer K Madhavan's findings following allegations of match-fixing against him, which in turn were "entirely based" on the report of CBI.
"The CBI itself had stated that its report on the match-fixing issue was not legally enforceable," Jadeja's counsel P P Malhotra had argued.
He also alleged that Madhavan, while probing the matter
on behalf of the BCCI neither gave any chance to Jadeja to explain
his position nor supplied any documents to him.
Aggrieved by the single judge's order that Jadeja's writ
petition against the BCCI was maintainable, the board had
filed an appeal before the division bench.
Mail Cricket Editor
