SC seeks BCCI's reply on implementation of Lodha panel recommendations

The Supreme Court on Thursday sought a reply from the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) on implementation of the Lodha Committee recommendations.

"We will give a very simple and straight solution. We will simply accept all recommendations of Justice Lodha. We will hear the BCCI only if there is some inherent anomaly in report," Chief Justice of India, Justice T.S. Thakur, said.

The apex court has given four weeks time to the BCCI to file its reply. The next hearing has been slated for March 3.

The Supreme Court-appointed Lodha Committee had earlier in their report recommended the legalisation of betting in Indian cricket.

The Lodha committee also suggested the appointment of three authorities with distinct roles.

Justice (Retd.) Lodha proposed that the second authority would be the ethics officer, who will administer the issues relating to conflict of interest, behavior or corruption issues.

He added that the ethics officer would be a former High Court Judge.

"The third authority, which we proposed to be created, is an electoral officer, who will oversee the entire election process relating to the office bearers, namely preparation of voters' list, publications, disputes about eligibility of the office bearers, all these matters relating to election shall be overseen by the electoral officer," he said.

The other recommendations include a steering committee headed by former home secretary G.K. Pillai with Mohinder Amarnath, Diana Eduljee and Anil Kumble as members.

The Lodha committee was appointed by the apex court last year to make recommendations to the BCCI in order to prevent frauds and conflict of interest in cricket administration.