Supreme Court sacks Anurag Thakur as president, Ajay Shirke too shown door
NEW DELHI :The Supreme Court today ordered the removal of Anurag Thakur as chief of India’s cricket board BCCI, saying all board officials who had not fallen i
The Supreme Court has also ordered the sacking of BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke. The court said all Lodha recommendations must be implemented and this means that all cricket administrators over 70 years old will have to resign.
The verdict in the BCCI versus Lodha Committee came after months of a bitter court battle. The Lodha Committee, appointed by the Supreme Court after a betting scandal in the Indian Premier League, has recommended sweeping changes in the way the board in India is run and led, and had complained that it was refusing to implement them.
Head of the Lodha Panel, RM Lodha called SC’s order understandable, as BCCI were reluctant to accept SC’s July order on reforms, hence these consequences were bound to follow. Lodha also added that the order should work as a template for other sports organisations too.
“Why are you trying to mislead the court? If you want to escape perjury charges, you ought to apologise. At every stage you have been trying to obstruct. Everyone wants to go around and continue to hold the post even after 70 years. This is such a lucrative business that everyone wants to go on forever,” the court said.
Supreme Court will be replacing the top brass with a panel of administrators and is seeking names before finalising the list on 19th Jan. Earlier, The Lodha Committee had suggested removal of the BCCI office-bearers and the appointment of GK Pillai in its status report.
In the last hearing, amicus curiae and senior lawyer Gopal Subramaniam recommended the names of Pillai with ex-Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai and former Test cricketer Mohinder Amarnath to run the BCCI.
On December 15, the top court had observed Thakur prima facie appears to have committed matter of perjury in relation to demanding an intervention via a letter from the International Cricket Council (ICC) in order to sidestep the implementation of the Lodha committee recommendations.
