Disqualify BCCI Office Bearers, Appoint GK Pillai As Observer: Lodha Panel To Top Court

The Lodha Committee has in its latest report to the Supreme Court reiterated that office bearers of the Cricket Board BCCI should be sacked and has suggested that former home secretary GK Pillai be appointed as an observer to supervise the board's administration.

It has said Mr Pillai as observer should conduct the crucial task of appointing auditors for awarding BCCI contracts like that for media rights for future editions of the Indian Premier League or IPL.

The Supreme Court will next hear the case on December 5. The committee, headed by former chief justice of India RM Lodha, was appointed by the Supreme Court after a betting scandal in the IPL to suggest reforms in the running of the BCCI.

It has been at loggerheads with the board, the world's richest cricket body, which says it will be impossible to implement all the panel's proposals, including an age and tenure cap for top officials and a one-state-one-vote.

The court, which had earlier this year accepted the Lodha panel's recommendations, has used strong words to censure the board for its refusal to "fall in line" and observe, "if BCCI thinks they are law unto themselves, they are wrong.

Last month it gave BCCI president Anurag Thakur and the 13 state associations in the country till December 3 to implement the reforms proposed by the Lodha Committee, putting on hold disbursal of funds to state associations till they promised to do that.

The Lodha committee had first suggested in September this year that the board's top office holders be removed for non-compliance with its recommendations.

(With inputs from A Vaidyanathan)