Status Report: COA seeks removal of BCCI office bearers

New Delhi: At loggerheads with the current set of BCCI office-bearers, the Committee of Administrators (CoA) sought their removal, citing the end of their tenures as per the BCCI constitution. The CoA also asked for the apex court’s direction on having an AGM without formal adoption of the new constitution as per Lodha Committee recommendation.

The two-member CoA comprising Vinod Rai and Diana Edulji, on Thursday filed their eighth status report in SC, where they have recommended election for a fresh set of office-bearers by removing acting president CK Khanna, acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhary and treasurer Aniruddh Chaudhry.

The CoA has also recommended removal of IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla, stating that he has also outlived his tenure. The relations between office-bearers and CoA have hit an all-time low. While the SC-appointed committee has accused office-bearers of delaying implementation of Lodha Reforms, the latter feel Rai and Co overstepped the brief given to them as per Apex Court’s verdict. CoA in its report cited Rule 15 (i) of existing BCCI constitution which says: “Election of office-bearers and vice-presidents shall be held at AGM of Board every year. Office bearers and vice president so elected will hold office for three years.” CoA then gave the full list of office-bearers elected during its 85th AGM in Chennai in March 2015 where Jagmohan Dalmiya was elected as president.

Accordingly, as per existing constitution, tenure of all office-bearers, elected during AGM will end their term on March 1, 2018. Subsequently in the next two and half years, Dalmiya passed away, Shashank Manohar resigned while Anurag Thakur was ousted by the Apex Court. Accordingly, Khanna as the senior-most vice-president and Chaudhary as the joint secretary took over as acting president and secretary respectively while Aniruddh continued as joint secretary as per apex court order on January 2, 2017.

The CoA wrote “In our respectful understanding the aforesaid order dated January 2, 2017 passed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court does not deal with issue of tenure of office bearers. The said order provides that i) The senior-most vice-president shall perform duties of president. ii) Joint secretary shall perform duties of secretary. iii) Other office-bearers shall continue, all subject to conditions stipulated therein.

Accordingly, if the respective terms of senior-most vice-president and joint secretary have expired, they cannot continue to perform their duties of President and secretary respectively.” They also mentioned that Shukla as IPL Governing Council chairman was given an extension at the 87th AGM of BCCI in September 2016 for one year. CoA said that Shukla’s term has ended on September 20, 2017 and there is a need to select a fresh set of office-bearers. However, it is a given that the three office-bearers will challenge CoA recommendations as they are ready with instances where Vinod Rai and his panel did not adhere to protocol of calling general body meetings on policy decisions.

A senior BCCI official told PTI, “CoA quotes existing BCCI constitution for removal of office-bearers but does not summon general body on policy matters. Players’ Central contract should have been placed at the GB. Similarly, all major appointments — ACU office, GM (marketing), GM (Cricket Operations) should have been done in consultation with general body. So, on one hand, you cite BCCI constitution to remove them and on the other hand bypass it on policy matters. “Also, Rai started interfering in technical cricketing matters, which wasn’t his domain. How come, he was asking questions on cricketing issue whereas the SC mandate was to implement Lodha Committee recommendations,” the official fumed.