CHENNAI: It may amount to a violation of the Supreme Court’s order, but the BCCI is without an ombudsman at the moment. Justice (retd) DK Jain’s one-year tenure got over on February 29. The BCCI’s apex council in a meeting on February 16 had decided that Justice Jain would be asked he is willing to continue. Else, they would look for someone else.

Five days after his tenure ended, Justice Jain said he is still to be approached by the BCCI. “My term has ended. Nobody from the BCCI has got in touch with me. Unless they do that and I come to know about their plans, it’s not possible for me to say whether I would continue in this role,” Justice Jain told 
this newspaper on Thursday.

Since Justice Jain was doubling up as ethics officer as well as being the ombudsman, the BCCI at the moment has nobody in these posts. Having an ombudsman and ethics officer is mandatory for the cricket board, as per the Supreme Court’s reform orders. Justice Jain was appointed by the apex court last year, which said subsequently the BCCI should appoint one.It can be noted that the BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah were busy the last few days with the appointment of new 

selectors. That process more or less coincided with the time when Justice Jain could have been approached. Sources following developments felt that could be one of the reasons why they were unable to get in touch with Justice Jain. That said, the BCCI being without an ombudsman is still an anomaly, considering that the top court of the country had made his appointment mandatory. In his one year in that role, Justice Jain handled several conflict of interest cases involving top names. The BCCI’s application seeking changes in the revised constitution is still to be heard by the court.