BCCI to challenge Bombay High Court’s order in Supreme Court

New Delhi  :  The Indian cricket board Friday said it would be appealing to the Supreme Court against the Bombay High Court order that had termed illegal its two-member probe panel in the Indian Premier League (IPL) spot fixing and betting scandal.

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) senior vice-president Arun Jaitley, a former union law minister, read out the High Court’s order during the IPL Governing Council meeting here and it was decided that the board will file a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court.

BCCI’s chief administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty said the Board will be filing a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court.

“Mr. Jaitley read out the Bombay High Court’s order during the IPL Governing Council meeting and it was decided that we will file an SLP in the Supreme Court,” said Shetty.

The scheduled working committee meeting had to be postponed on technical grounds as the agenda was not set and it was not mentioned as emergency working committee. According to the BCCI constitution, the committee cannot meet twice in a week.

BCCI vice-president Chitrak Mitra said the board will be challenging the Bombay High Court’s order.

“The BCCI will be challenging the Bombay High Court’s order. And the working committee meeting was postponed on technical grounds. There was no agenda set before the meeting and it was not mentioned as the emergency working committee meeting,” said Mitra.

The committee met last Sunday in Kolkata when the two-member probe panel, comprising retired Tamil Nadu High Court judges T. Jayaram Chouta and R. Balasubramanian, submitted its report giving a clean chit to Chennai Super Kings team principal Gurunath Meiyappan, also son-in-law of Narayanswamy Srinivasan — who stepped aside as BCCI president during the duration of the probe, and Rajasthan Royals’ co-owner Raj Kundra.

Srinivasan and interim BCCI chief Jagmohan Dalmiya were called by the IPL Governing Council after the meeting and were informed about the decision to file an SLP in the Supreme Court.

Shetty said the working committee will next meet after the court case is over.

“The next working committee will be after the court case is over. Till then Mr. Dalmiya will carry on as the interim president,” said Shetty.

Former secretary Sanjay Jagdale and treasurer Ajay Shirke will be replaced by their successors Sanjay Patel and Ravi Sawant in the BCCI ethics committee.

Despite the Bombay High Court Monday terming the panel as illegal, Srinivasan was determined to return as the board president. He had earlier stepped aside, giving the powers to Dalmiya, after Meiyappan was arrested by the Mumbai police on charges of betting.

Srinivasan had a lengthy meeting with senior BCCI members Arun Jaitley and Rajeev Shukla before the IPL Governing Council meeting that was to be followed by the working committee meeting.