The Supreme Court on Thursday pulled up Board of Control for Cricket in India president Anurag Thakur for allegedly lying under oath and trying to obstruct its verdict on implementation of the RM Lodha panel reforms.
The bench, headed by Chief Justice of India TS Thakur, said that the BCCI president could face time in jail if found guilty of perjury charges. He added that only an apology could help him “escape”.
“Your client has played the role of an obstructionist,” the Court was reported to have said by the Hindustan Times.
PTI reported that the SC reserved its order on the issue of initiating contempt and perjury proceedings against Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke, but added that “prima facie we feel that both of them are liable for contempt and perjury and we are inclined to launch prosecution.”
The Supreme Court also asked the Board to suggest names for the post of an administrator to oversee cricketing matters and granted them one week’s time for the same.
The Lodha panel had suggested the name of former home secretary GK Pillai as administrator, but according to PTI, the BCCI said it has “serious objection” on the appointment of Pillai as administrator of the board.
The order is likely to come on Friday or on January 2 or 3, which is also Chief Justice TS Thakur’s last working day.
On being asked if the BCCI president had conducted perjury, the Amicus Curiae Gopal Subramaniam told the court that the BCCI president had lied on oath to the apex court.
According to the Curiae, Thakur had stated in his affidavit to the apex body that he had sought former BCCI president and current International Cricket Council chairman Shashank Manohar’s opinion as BCCI chairman, but that fact had been denied by Manohar who said that it had been asked in an ICC meet. According to Subramniam, Thakur had been trying to obstruct the reform process.
On Monday, the Supreme Court had rejected BCCI’s plea seeking a review of its July 18 verdict approving the implementation of the Lodha Panel reforms.
The Indian cricket body had submitted a petition to the SC to reconsider its July verdict where it had asked the BCCI to accept the majority of the Justice Lodha Committee’s recommendations and had provided a time-frame of six months.
However in October, the court had reserved its orders on the Justice Lodha panel’s status report for appointment of new administrators after the Indian cricket body sought more time to implement the Lodha reforms.
The court had barred the BCCI from releasing money to state associations unless they agreed to abide by the Justice Lodha Committee’s recommendations. The judiciary made this decision while providing an interim order in the case to decide whether the Indian cricket body’s top brass should be “superseded”, as recommended by the Lodha panel.
Thakur had also been asked to file a personal affidavit about whether he had asked for a letter of intervention from the chief of the International Cricket Council, David Richardson regarding the recommendations.
In response, the BCCI had argued that they were not against implementing reforms, but they faced technical impediments. The court however informed the Indian body that they would remove those impediments.
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