Cricket Association of Bihar moves SC for stay on BCCI polls

The Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB) today moved the Supreme Court seeking stay of BCCI election for office bearers scheduled for May 22 and to bar chargesheeted candidates from contesting.
The plea was mentioned before a vacation bench of Justices A M Sapre and Ashok Bhushan which refused to hear it saying it is part-heard matter and regular bench is already hearing it.
Counsel appearing for CAB said that it is an urgent matter as the election is scheduled for May 22 and no prior 21 days' notice has been given for the elections.
He also sought implementation of the Lodha Committee recommendations under which a candidate, who has been chargesheeted in a case, cannot contest the BCCI election for office bearers.

The apex bench asked the counsel for CAB to mention the matter before vacation Registrar for listing it before another bench noting that it is already being heard by regular bench.
A bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur, which is already hearing the matter, had earlier pulled up the BCCI for resisting the Justice R M Lodha-led committee's recommendation on capping the age of its office bearers to 70 years.

The current proceedings in the apex court are the outcome of the petition filed by CAB through its secretary Aditya Kumar Verma who alleged large scale irregularities.
The apex court had on April 25 pulled up BCCI for "monopolizing" cricket in the country and had said several youngsters "wanting to be Dhonis and Kohlis" are not given equal opportunity if they are not on the right side of the cricket body.

On July 18, the court had accepted major recommendations
of the Lodha Committee on reforms in BCCI, including a bar on ministers and civil servants and those above 70 from becoming its members, but left it to Parliament to decide whether it should come under RTI or whether betting on the game should be legalised.
The apex court had also accepted the recommendations of the Committee headed by retired Chief Justice of India Justice R M Lodha to have a CAG nominee in BCCI.
The bench had, however, rejected BCCI's objection against the recommendations for 'one-state, one-vote' and said that states like Maharashtra and Gujarat having more than one cricket associations will have voting rights on rotational basis.

The bench also accepted the recommendation that one person should hold one post in cricket administration to avoid conflict of interest and scrapping of all otheradministrative committees in BCCI after the CAG nominee comes in.
The apex court-appointed Lodha Committee had on January 4 recommended sweeping reforms and an administrative shake-up in the troubled BCCI.