Courtroom battle resumes tomorrow
The earlier application allegedly gave wrong details about Srinivasan which was later amended
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday will hear a batch of applications from BCCI, ICC chairman, N. Srinivasan, and BJP leader Subramanian Swami relating to conflict of interest.
A Bench of justices — T.S. Thakur and Ibrahim Kalifulla — will take up the matter. Though the case was to be listed earlier, there was delay as the BCCI filed an amendment to its earlier application seeking clarification whether Srinivasan can attend the BCCI meeting. The earlier application allegedly gave wrong details about Srinivasan which was later amended.
The BCCI has sought clarification on whether Srinivasan can participate in the Board meetings following the Justice Lodha panel submitting its report on ‘conflict of interest’ issue. The BCCI quoted 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 and that he can participate in the meeting as 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 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.
M. Srinivasan in his application has taken exception to the details furnished in the BCCI earlier application and prayed for a magisterial enquiry against BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur for “deliberately misleading” the SC with “patent falsehoods” about him. He accused Thakur of trying to impress on the court that Srinivasan was one among three trustees with the India Cements Shareholders Trust holding the Chennai Super Kings Cricket Limited (CSKCL) shares. The intention was to show that Srinivasan was still in a position of conflict of interest despite the January 22 apex court judgment banning cricket administrators from having commercial interests.
In fact, Srinivasan said, he was not even a trustee with the India Cements Shareholders Trust. The man referred to as a ‘trustee’ was actually another ‘N. Srinivasan’, he said.
Swami said that if Shashank Manohar is elected as BCCI president at the meeting to be held on Sunday, he would have the liberty to challenge his election on the ground of conflict of interest.