Kolkata: It’s been almost a year of the Lodha Committee reforms and still, the BCCI has failed to implement it. In a monumental decision last year the Supreme Court had given consent to the reforms suggested by the R.M Lodha led committee on the structure of the BCCI and had also given the board a six-month deadline to implement them.
On October 1 last year, the Indian board accepted all the, ‘significant recommendations’ but the ones which was the main apple of discord between the Indian board and the Lodha Committee were excluded.
These include the one-state-one-vote policy, the age limit of 70 years, the three-year cooling off period which includes the term of office of the administrators, continuation with the five-selector policy and the retention of the powers of the president and secretary according to the earlier constitution of the Indian board.
Vinod Rai, the chief of the Committee of Administrators, in an exclusive interview with ESPN Cricinfo said, he said that there’s little time to talk and now he is looking ahead to the apex court to take up this positioning.
He said, “Our mandate was to implement the recommendations of the Lodha Committee as approved by the Supreme Court on July 18, 2016.”
He added further, “How do we ensure that mandate is fulfilled? We can ensure that mandate is fulfilled only by making the BCCI’s special general body meeting (SGM) pass a resolution (to adopt the new constitution and reforms). Isn’t it? If that could have been done by January 30, then we would not have been required.”
“Since the verdict was thrust onto them, they did not agree so I tried to build consensus (among BCCI members). I told them you have said withdraw the order, but the Supreme Court would not withdraw it since it has passed the judgment.
I asked the BCCI members to narrow down the parts of the order that were hurting them, but please adopt the new constitution. And then appeal to the court asking to look at the shortlist of recommendations again,”
The CoA chief also said that he had asked the Indian board to not disobey the Supreme Court commands and approach the apex court in case there’s a problem with any recommendation.
He said, “That is why I held the meeting (with the state associations) before the SGMs (on June 6 and June 25). I was impressing upon them the fact that if you adopt the constitution you get onto the right side of the court. Then you point out X & Y are practical difficulties and hence cannot be implemented.”
He added further, “This attempt failed due to the intransigence of a couple of people with vested interests who could sway the others.”
Rai also went on to reveal that he had asked the apex court to issue an order under Article 142 of the constitution and direct the Registrar of the Tamil Nadu government to register the new constitution of the BCCI.
Article 142 of the Indian constitution states, “Enforcement of the decrees and orders of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court in the exercise of its jurisdiction may pass such decree or make such order as is necessary for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it and make it enforceable throughout the territory of India.”
On June 23, a seven member committee was formed by the BCCI to make sure that the Lodha Committee reforms were implemented as soon as possible.
On July 8, the panel expressed hesitations over the four points of the Lodha Committee reforms- the one-state-one-vote policy, the number of members in the selection panel, the cooling off period and the separation of functions of professionals and office-bearers.