Supreme Court to hear BCCI’s plea

Senior counsel K.K. Venugopal, appearing for the BCCI made a mention before a bench of Justices T.S. Thakur and Kurian Joseph for early listing of the application. The BJP leader Subramanian Swami who has filed an intervention application also sought impleadment in the matter. The Bench told the counsel that the Chief Justice H.L. Dattu has to constitute the bench comprising Justice Thakur and Justice Ibrahim Kalifulla and it will be done expeditiously.

In its application the BCCI quoted Mr. Srinivasan’s submission in the previous meeting that he can attend the Board meetings as he has divested all the stakes of India Cements, the owners of Chennai Super Kings and he has no shares or conflict of interest or commercial interest in the CSK. Mr. Srinivasan was also understood to have claimed that he was representing the BCCI in his capacity as the President of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association.

The BCCI sought to know from the apex court whether ‘conflict of interest’ still exists or it has been removed as claimed by Mr. Srinivasan, who is also representing the BCCI in the ICC. The Board said this issue can be resolved either by the apex court or it can be referred to the Justice Lodha panel once again to decide the matter in accordance with its findings.

Dr Swami in his application said that he has enough material to prove that the only motive behind the present litigation against Mr Srinivasan is to vitiate his control in the BCCI and thereby giving power to a group of people who are scam-tainted, corrupt and in violation of various other penal laws and with connections to undesirable elements in Dubai and London.