MUMBAI: The standoff continues between the
Committee of Administrators (
CoA) and office-bearers of the
BCCI. The latest point of controversy is the June 22 Special General Meeting (SGM), proposed by the members.
While the CoA has red-flagged the meeting on the grounds that it has only been called to undermine its authority, the office-bearers claim it’s their fundamental right to convene a meeting.
On Friday, BCCI acting secretary
Amitabh Choudhary accused the CoA of “extinguishing all democratic processes” with regards to its directions for the SGM. In an e-mail to its employees and the office-bearers, the CoA has directed that the “BCCI employee/consultant/retainer/service provider” not to “prepare and/or circulate any papers in respect of the said SGM”, as the meeting’s notice didn’t have the prior approval of the Committee.
Choudhary, however, has criticised the CoA for ‘misinterpreting’ the Supreme Court’s orders in this regard and pointed out examples of the Committee’s ‘overreach.’ “At the outset, it would be pertinent to mention here that the directions and instructions issued by the Committee qua the convening of the SGM of the BCCI has the effect of extinguishing all democratic processes in the organisation and the same is being done by the Committee under the misplaced umbrella of the orders of the Hon’ble Supreme Court,” the acting secretary wrote in his email to the CoA on Friday.
He added that the BCCI has the (legal) advice in its favour in terms of holding the SGM, while accusing that the members’ rights “are sought to be scuttled” by the CoA. “While there has been little effort to show for results during the last year and a half where the SC mandated reforms were concerned, every possible effort has and is being made by the committee to stall the decision-making processes institutionalised under the Rules and Regulations of the BCCI and to focus on usurping all powers contained therein and reduce the organisation to a tool to wield as it deems fit. It is important to point out that the Committee has adopted an adversarial approach to both the implementation of the reforms and to the supervision of the administration of the BCCI with various shifts of goal-posts during this period,” Choudhary wrote in his email, citing previous examples like convening the selection committee meetings, the BCCI’s representation in the ICC and removal of the existing office-bearers to describe the CoA ‘overreach’.
Choudhary asked the CoA to withdraw its order. “In the facts and circumstances, arrogation of powers to itself and flawed interpretation of judicial orders, it is humbly requested to kindly withdraw the orders which might come in the way of the constitutional functioning of the BCCI and may hamper the decision making of the General Body by restricting flow of information to the Board through the staff of the BCCI.”
