Shweta Tambade
The Supreme Court had assigned Senior Advocate P S Narsimha as an amicus curiae in March 2019. It decided disputes of the cricket bodies through meetings and mediation.
The court had then, restricted all the other courts and tribunals from considering any matters relating to cricket clubs, associations, and BCCI until the reports on resolution of disputes are submitted by Narsimha.
Leading the bench, Justice L Nageswara Rao considered the relevant reports submitted by the amicus.
He added that the tribunals and courts can now decide cases within the jurisdiction.
Modifying the order of 2019, the bench recorded that the amicus has submitted that the process of mediation with cricketing bodies was over.
Concerning the order, the court shut down more than twenty applications filed by several bodies of Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana, and Bihar.
The bench had told the applicants to apply before a suitable forum for deciding the disputes as the interim order was now revoked.
The court denied hearing requests of another handful of applicants for reviewing the terms of mediation or setting it aside.
The court said, “Mr Narasimha had meetings with representatives of associations, clubs, and the committee of administrators (CoA), BCCI.”
The court noticed that as accepted by the Supreme Court in 2018, the majority of state associations have obeyed the Lodha Committee reforms, after which elections have also been conducted.
Taking note of these developments, the court noted that the majority of the pending applications can be taken down.
The bench would hear the other matters in the third week of January, that needed a hearing given the possible contests by opposite sides.
The Supreme Court has reorganized the BCCI and forced all the recognized cricketing associations in the country to adopt and implement the reforms laid down by the Justice Lodha Committee.
Its orders had removed N Srinivasan as the BCCI chairperson over conflict of interest following a probe into IPL betting and spot-fixing scandal, besides omitting the inclusion of ministers and civil servants over 70 years of age as BCCI members.
The court also mandated all state associations to implement the recommendations by the Lodha Committee to continue as acknowledged associations with a right to vote in the BCCI polls apart from receiving funds from the apex cricketing body.