The Supreme Court today dismissed BCCI’s plea seeking review of its verdict by which a controversial amendment of a rule which permitted the cricket board administrators to acquire or hold commercial interest in events like IPL and champions league was struck down.
The apex court did not find merit in the plea of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) seeking re-examination of its finding, which held that the amendment to rule 6.2.4 was the “true villain” of the situation leading to conflict of interest arising in IPL format between an administrator’s duty and the commercial interest.
“We have examined the grounds urged in support of the prayer for review. We find no error apparent on the face of the record to warrant recall of our order dated January 22, 2015. The review petitions are, accordingly, dismissed,” a bench comprising justices T S Thakur and F M I Kalifulla said.
On January 22, the apex court, in its 138-page judgement, had said that conflict of interest was one area which appeared to have led to the confusion and it raised “serious misgivings” in the mind of the public regarding the manner in which BCCI was managing its affairs.
The apex court had declared as “void and ineffective,” the amendment in 6.2.4 of the BCCI rules which had enabled N Srinivasan to acquire the IPL team, Chennai Super Kings.
The verdict had said the provision in the rule “clearly negates the declarations and resolves of the BCCI by permitting situations in which conflict of interest would grossly erode the confidence of the people in the authenticity, purity and integrity of the game.”
The court had also opined that it would not be correct to say that there was no possibility of any conflict of interest arising in IPL format between an administrator’s duty and the commercial interest, if any, held by such person.
Terming as unfortunate the amendment to rule 6.2.4, the bench had said “it clearly negates the declarations and resolves of BCCI by permitting situations in which conflict of interest would grossly erode the confidence of the people in the authenticity, purity and integrity of the game.”
The January 22 judgement was passed on the plea filed by Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB), filed through its Secretary Aditya Verma.