BCCI amendments, if permitted, will mean ridiculing the Supreme Court'

[Torrent Disney]

The adoption of the amendments proposed by the BCCI to its constitution would, if unchallenged, be tantamount to "ridiculing" of the Supreme Court and its endeavour over the past several years to introduce reforms in the richest and most powerful cricket board in the world.

That's the opinion of Gopal Sankaranarayanan, secretary of the RM Lodha Committee, whose recommended reforms were approved by the Supreme Court on July 18, 2016. The Lodha Committee, appointed by the court in 2015, was headed by Lodha, a former Chief Justice of India, along with former Supreme Court Justices RV Raveendran and Ashok Bhan.

ALSO READ: BCCI plans sweeping changes, Lodha reforms under threat

Speaking to ESPNcricinfo, Sankaranarayanan said he believed the highest court in the country still "had a role to play" in the issue and that the BCCI's proposed changes, if adopted, could be challenged by any member of the public. He did, however, concede that the court itself was partly to blame for gradually "diluting" the reforms it had first approved three years ago.

Sankaranarayanan is the first person closely involved with the drafting of the reforms to react to the BCCI's proposals. Lodha, when contacted by this reporter on Monday, said he had stopped commenting on BCCI matters.

The proposals to change the constitution came to light on Saturday, when the BCCI's new secretary, Jay Shah, circulated the agenda for the board's annual general meeting, to be held on December 1. The constitution, which had been registered in August 2018, had been drafted by the Committee of Administrators (CoA).

"I would have of course wished the Supreme Court had not just kept changing its views and diluting the reforms more and more every time a new bench came to look at the matter because that is precisely what has happened"Gopal Sankaranarayanan

The most radical amendments include altering the rules concerning the cooling-off period for office-bearers, relaxing various disqualification criteria and removing the need for any changes to the constitution to be approved by the Supreme Court.

Adopting of the proposals, Sankaranarayanan said, would mean the reforms had ceased to exist. "If this is permitted to be done and if it remains unchallenged in court and the Supreme Court does not either have a challenge before it or it does not take up suo motu, it will mean ridiculing of the Supreme Court and everything that it did over the years," he said. "It will completely mean going back to square one as far as cricket administration and reforms are concerned. Most of the significant changes would have ceased to exist."

তিনি উল্লেখ করেছিলেন যে বিসিসিআই তৎকালীন প্রধান বিচারপতি টি এস ঠাকুরের দেওয়া জুলাই মাসে প্রধান বিচারপতির পরে শীর্ষ আদালতের বিভিন্ন বেঞ্চ দ্বারা পুনর্গঠিত সংস্কারগুলিকে আরও ooিলা করার চেষ্টা করছে। "এটি সুপারিশ করে যে সুপ্রিম কোর্ট পদক্ষেপ নেওয়ার পরে তারা সংস্কারের বাকি অংশগুলি প্রায় পুরোপুরি কার্যকর করছে। তারা মনে করে যে সুপ্রিম কোর্ট বেশ কয়েক বছর ধরে স্টাফ দেখছে তার পরে কোনও প্রকার লাকুনা পিছনে থাকতে পারে।

"তারা সম্ভবত চেষ্টা করতে পারে এবং তর্ক করতে পারে, 'দেখুন, সুপ্রিম কোর্ট আমাদের নিজস্ব সংবিধান সংশোধন করতে বাধা দেয় নি তাই আমরা এর সংশোধন করতে এবং এতে সব ধরণের পরিবর্তন আনতে সক্ষম হয়েছি।' এটি দেখার সরু পথ তারা এটিকে নিশ্চিত করবে যে সুপ্রিম কোর্ট নিজেই [মূল সংস্কার] অনেকটাই উল্টে দিয়েছে, যাতে পুরানো চক্রগুলি বৃহত্তরভাবে কাজ চালিয়ে যেতে পারে। "