Johri to run BCCI under panel of administrators: SC

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has emphatically put paid to the ambitions of some incumbent functionaries in the Board of Control for Cricket in India after ruling that BCCI’s chief executive officer Rahul Johri will continue to look after day-to-day activities till it appoints the committee of administrators. 

Following the hearing on Friday, an interim order of the three-judge bench of Justice Dipak Misra, Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice Dr DY Chandrachud was made public on Sunday. 

“We have been apprised that presently the CEO is functioning and looking after the working of the BCCI and he shall continue to do so till we nominate the Committee, under whose supervision he shall work.”

The provision thus supersedes the earlier direction, issued on January 2, of elevating “senior-most vice-president” (most reports said CK Khanna) to the president’s post and letting joint secretary Amitabh Chaudhary function as the interim secretary till the administrators’ panel is appointed.

Chaudhary, along with BCCI treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry, had flown down to Mumbai on Saturday following the hearing, The Hindu reports. It is understood that the duo was intending to take charge on Monday till further instructions had the court not made its interim ruling.

In its order of January 20, the Bench said that it had received "suggestions" from the amicus curiae Gopal Subramanium and senior legal counsel Anil Divan for the committee. "The said suggestions were filed in two sealed covers before the Court, one containing the names and the other the methodology adopted by it," Friday's order said. "Having heard learned counsel for the parties, we think it appropriate that the documents in the sealed covers which have been opened in the Court should be sealed and, after due deliberation, certain number of members shall be chosen, who can administer the day-to-day affairs of the BCCI."

The hearing when the names of members constituting the committee of administrators will be announced is scheduled for 2 pm on Tuesday.