BCCI CoA to take stock of compliance report of state bodies on September 25: Diana Edulji

The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) will meet in Mumbai on September 25 and take note of the situation as far as state associations reworking their constitutions as per the newly registered Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) constitution is concerned. BCCI’s legal team will compile a complete report and submit it to the two-member CoA — Vinod Rai and Diana Edulji — before the committee hands a status report to the SC on the same.

Speaking to Hindustan Times, Diana said that while September 20 was the last date for the state associations to file their respective compliance report, the CoA will meet on September 25 to take stalk of the situation.

“We are meeting in Mumbai on September 25 and will be provided with a complete report by the legal team and only after that we can tell you who all have complied and who haven’t,” she said.

The Supreme Court in its order dated August 9 approved the newly drafted constitution of the BCCI and asked the board to register it with the Registrar of Societies of Tamil Nadu. The CoA got the new constitution registered on August 21 and that meant that the state associations had till September 20 — 30 days — to rework their constitutions, mirroring the BCCI constitution and hand over a certificate of compliance to the CoA.

Speaking to the media soon after registering the new constitution, Rai had said: “We are looking at elections in about 90 days. The compliance report needs to be giving within four weeks from the date of registration. We have given the date as September 20. There is no cause for any ambiguity. There is a specific mandate that has been given to the CoA, rest assured that we will not overstep it by a day.

“As far as the BCCI is concerned, the new constitution has come into effect and there is no two ways about it. The Supreme Court order is very clear. It says the state association should mirror the BCCI constitution. So whether it is a committee or a trust or a co-operative, it has to mirror the issues which are in the BCCI constitution.”

Speaking on the state associations complying with the new BCCI constitution, a member of one of the state associations said: “It is clear from Day 1 that all in the BCCI wish to comply with the directions of the honourable Supreme Court. The present situation is however a little confusing since the CoA has gone beyond the remit of the court and has selectively registered some provisions which the honourable court’s judgements do not prescribe. We are hopeful of a quick resolution of this matter.”

Another official echoed the sentiments and said that the CoA should have informed the court of some of the genuine issues that still persist, rather than leaving the state bodies to fight their own battles. “It must be added that when the CoA themselves had admitted to some issues or lack of clarity being there in the press conference on August 27 — post registration of the new constitution — it would have been only fair for them to have sought the clarifications from the court rather than creating further confusions.

“A similar example can be found in the minutes of their April 12 meeting wherein they mentioned that there were issues relating to the conflict of interest clause and the same could be separately brought to the notice of the honourable court. But it musy be noted that so many months have passed and nothing has been done on this. All this has created a trust deficit in addition to the confusion. But everyone has complete faith in the Supreme Court of India and the members are confident of the matter being resolved expeditiously,” he told the Hindustan Times.

First Published: Sep 20, 2018 14:07 IST