CoA demands ouster of BCCI office-bearers for non-compliance

New Delhi, Aug 16 (IANS) The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) on Wednesday pulled up the BCCI by demanding the ouster of acting President C.K. Khanna, acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary and treasurer Anirudh Chaudhary from office for deliberately misconstruing the apex court's order.

In their status report submitted to the top court, the CoA also hit back at the board for barring CEO Rahul Johri and the legal team from attending the Special General Meeting on July 26.

"First, the CEO of BCCI as well as the administrative staff, including the legal team, were asked to leave the meeting on the basis that they are not office bearers," the report read.

"The CEO was asked to leave despite clear directions from the CoA to the effect that the CEO shall be entitled to attend every SGM and other meetings of the BCCI. The office bearers of the BCCI, instead of reprimanding the constituent members who were suggesting that BCCI officials, including the CEO, leave the meeting, did absolutely nothing.

"It appears that the intention was also to ensure that the Committee of Administrators would not receive a first-hand account of the proceedings during the SGM and hence the CEO of BCCI and other administrative staff, including the legal team were asked to leave the meeting," the report added.

The CoA also said that the BCCI officials also used the apex court's expression of 'etc' with regards to looking into some of the reforms suggested by the Justice R.M. Lodha committee to their advantage and included a series of issues aimed at unravelling the fundamental core of the reforms mandated by the Supreme Court.

"Secondly, the totally neutral expression 'etc' was treated as an excuse to bring in a series of issues aimed at unravelling the fundamental core of the reforms mandated by this hon'ble court including disqualification of office bearers, constitution of apex council, clear demarcation of functions, powers, duties and obligations between professional management and Apex Council, etc," the report stated.

The Vinod Rai-led CoA also demanded forensic audit of each state association under a three-member committee of a former Supreme Court judge on the lines of Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) and Hyderabad.

"It's clear that state associations have no desire to implement reforms," the status report read.

The CoA has also lashed out at the BCCI for not looking into basic issues like "conflict of interest" and the appointment of Ombudsman.

"Even fundamental issues such as conflict of interest rules and appointment of Ombudsman were not implemented during the SGM held on July 26, 2017. It is obvious that the whole idea was to stonewall the fundamental core of reforms mandated by this hon'ble court and make the same a dead letter," it read.