BCCI office bearers trying to subvert SC orders, says CoA; rival faction denies

The Committee of Administrators (CoA) has alleged that BCCI's office bearers -- acting president C K Khanna, acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhary and treasurer Aniruddh Chaudhry -- are trying to "subvert and frustrate" the orders passed by the Supreme Court.

In its ninth status report to the apex court, the CoA said: "The office bearers of BCCI are in collusion with various other persons, who attended the meeting held on June 22, 2018, clearly attempting to subvert and frustrate orders passed by this Hon'ble Court, by inserting limitations on powers and duties of the Committee of Administrators.

"This is being done with a view to hampering the ability of the Committee of Administrators to effectively supervise the management of BCCI though CEO."

With the Supreme Court hearing on the implementation of Lodha recommendations scheduled tomorrow, the office bearers didn't wish to comment on the CoA's latest status report, but sources close to them said that "they are not surprised" at the manner in which the Vinod Rai-led body has functioned till now.

 

In a 21-page letter, the CoA has said the modus operandi of the office bearers involve "drawing an artificial distinction between management and administration" as well as "implementation of judgement on one hand and matters of policy nature" on the other.

The CoA said it needs to take decisions on policy matters as it is intrinsically related to supervision of the board.

"Hon'ble Court does not carve out any such exceptions pertaining to decisions of policy from powers conferred and duties cast upon the Committee of Administrators. It stands to reason that task of supervising the management and administration of BCCI as well as ensuring that the directions contained in the judgement are implemented and will necessarily require COA to take decisions on matters of 'policy'."

In a separate allegation, it has written that the treasurer Chaudhry deliberately tried to stop Uttarakhand and Mizoram from participating in the Ranji Trophy by taking the matter to the Special General Body meeting on June 22, which the CoA termed invalid as prior permission was not taken.

"CoA, in its submission in Page 12, has referred to an e-mail that GM (cricket operations) Saba Karim had sent to office bearers with regards to participation of Mizoram and Uttarakhand. The treasurer had then written back stating that a policy matter needs to be discussed at general body as office bearers are not mandated.

"Now nowhere in Saba's communication it was stated that it was a CoA diktat. If CoA is alleging that treasurer played a foul game, they are misleading," a senior BCI official, who attended the SGM, said.