"You can't say tomorrow that entire country is your territory," the Supreme Court today told the BCCI when it opposed the 'one state-one vote' policy recommended by the Justice R M Lodha Committee on the ground that states having more than one administrative body for the game had their own territories.
"Who has distributed these territories? Are these territories backed by any statutes? How can these associations earmark a territory to themselves? You can't say tomorrow that entire country is your territory," a bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice F M I Kalifulla said after the BCCI claimed each administrative body in a state with more than one such entity had its own territory.
The cricket board said these associations are very old and some of them were the founding members of BCCI.
The submission by BCCI's counsel K K Venugopal came while clarifying the stand that it was difficult to implement the one state-one vote policy as some states like Maharashtra and Gujarat have more than one cricket association governing the game.
It also said if the recommendation was implemented some of the founding members and others like Cricket Club of India, Railway Sports Control Board and Services sports will lose their relevance.
The Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB) questioned as to why no cricket association has been recognized by BCCI in the state. CAB told the bench that since no association was recognised in the state, it had no voting rights in BCCI.
Senior advocate Rajeev Dhawan, appearing for CAB, on whose petition the apex court while dealing with the IPL betting scandal had appointed the Justice R M Lodha Committee, said originally it was the Bihar Cricket Association which was a member of the BCCI. However, after carving out of Jharkhand, no association from Bihar found a place in the cricket board.
CAB, through its Secretary Aditya Verma, brought to the notice of the bench the recent affidavit filed by BCCI Secretary Anurag Thakur which said that due to tussle among various cricket associations in the state, a matter pending with the apex court, the BCCI has not recognised any of them.
"BCCI, in the meanwhile, has appointed an adhoc committee to conduct cricket activities in Bihar," the affidavit has said.
