SC allows Tamil Nadu State Cricket Association to hold election for office-bearers

The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) to hold election to elect its office-bearers with a caveat that the results would be "subject to its orders".

A bench comprising Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao was, however, told by the Committee of Administrators (CoA), which is running BCCI, that TNCA and three other state cricket associations are consistently refusing to adopt the new constitution of the apex cricket body "in letter and spirit" despite the court's direction.

"They can do whatever they want to, but the elections have to be conducted. We can undo the result or send it to the civil court," the bench said.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the TNCA, objected to sending the subsequent litigation, if any, to a civil court and said rather, the results of this elections can be made subject to the orders of this court.

"We permit the TNCA to hold the election and the results of the election will be subject to the remedies available under the law and subject to the order of this court," the bench said.

On the issue of disqualification, it said the provisions of new constitution of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) would apply on office-bearers only.

The bench authorised senior advocate P S Narasimha, assisting the court as an amicus curiae, to extend the 21-day notice period for holding elections if the parties ask for it.

Senior lawyer Prag Tripathi, appearing for the CoA, alleged that the TNCA has been refusing to abide by the apex court's order by which it had finalised BCCI's new draft constitution.

Narasimha said most of the state cricket bodies have complied with the order of the apex court and have adopted BCCI's constitution, but four state associations, including TNCA, are yet to comply.

On August 9 last year, the apex court had approved the BCCI's new draft constitution, effectively diluting its earlier order, to allow office bearers to hold office for six consecutive years instead of three and reinstated voting rights of four legacy cricket associations in Maharashtra and Gujarat.

The top court had directed all state cricket bodies to adopt the new constitution in letter and spirit within four weeks and warned them of action for any non-compliance as envisaged in its earlier orders including in form of non-disbursal of funds from the cash-rich BCCI.

On the cooling off period for holding the office in BCCI and state cricket bodies, it had said the office bearers can have two consecutive terms, either in a state association or in the BCCI or a combination of both, before a mandatory cooling-off period of three years.

Prior to this, the Justice R M Lodha panel had recommended a cooling off period after just one tenure, instead of two.

The bench had said that a non-citizen, a person above 70 years of age, insolvent, or of unsound mind and a public servant will not be able to hold any post in the BCCI and state bodies.