Aditya Verma moves Supreme Court against Indian Premier League players' auction

A plea was on Friday moved in Supreme Court for direction to the Board of Control for Cricket in India that players' auction for Indian Premier League (IPL) 2014 should be subject to order passed by it on the report of a committee probing the spot-fixing scam of last championships allegedly involving Gurunath Meiyappan of Chennai Super Kings. The application in this regard was mentioned before a bench headed by Justice A K Patnaik which agreed to hear it on February 10. The auction of players for IPL 2014 is scheduled to be held in Bangalore on February 12 and 13 and Chennai Super Kings, one of the franchisees of IPL, will be participating in it.

The application filed by Aditya Verma, secretary of Cricket Association of Bihar, sought an interim order for the BCCI on the IPL auction, saying there was all likelihood that the three-member committee headed by former Punjab & Haryana Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal would come out with its report in second week of this month. He said the probe committee will submit a report on the role of Meiyappan, son-in-law of BCCI president N Srinivasan, whose company India Cements owns IPL team Chennai Super Kings. The application said if the report is adverse to Chennai Super Kings, then the team's participation in this year's IPL will be untenable. "The franchise of Chennai Super Kings may also be liable to be cancelled," he added. (Also read: Justice Mudgal wants betting legalised)

The secretary of Cricket Association of Bihar said among various persons, he was also examined by the Mudgal Committee. Under these circumstances, he said an interim order be passed that auction of players will be subject to order of the apex court on the report of Justice Mudgal Committee in so far as Chennai Super King is concerned so that justice may be done. (IPL spot-fixing probe won't be an eyewash, says Justice Mudgal)

The apex court on October 8, 2013 had constituted a three-member committee headed by Justice Mudgal to inquire into the allegation of betting and spot-fixing against Srinivasan's son-in-law and owners of Rajasthan Royals and submit its report within four months. The committee, also comprising senior advocate and Additional Solicitor General N Nagehswar Rao and Assam Cricket Association member Nilay Dutta, will file its report on the termination of contract of erring franchise. The apex court directed the BCCI and Srinivasan not to interfere in the probe to be done by the committee and directed to cooperate with it by providing all information.