Squeeze on BCCI's cash, scan on tenders

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday stopped short of appointing administrators to run the BCCI but asked the cricket board not to disburse money "for any purpose whatsoever" to state associations until they implement the reforms prescribed by the Lodha committee. The top court asked the Lodha committee to appoint immediately an independent auditor to scrutinise the board's accounts. The auditor will oversee the tendering processes beyond a stipulated amount and contracts can be awarded only with the approval of the committee. It also directed BCCI president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke to file compliance affidavits on the reforms within two weeks. "Implementation of the final judgment of this court... has prima facie been impeded by the intransigence of BCCI and its office-bearers," the court said. "However, having due regard to the submission made on behalf of the BCCI that it would make every genuine effort to persuade the state associations to secure compliance with the judgment of this court, and having regard to the larger interests of the game of cricket, we are desisting from issuing a direction at this stage in terms of the request made by the committee for appointment of administrators," the court said. The following are the key directives issued by the bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud.

• The BCCI should forthwith desist from any disbursement of funds for any purpose whatsoever to any state association until and unless the state association concerned adopts a resolution undertaking to implement the recommendations of the committee.
• After such a resolution is passed and before any disbursement of funds takes place to the state association concerned, a copy of the resolution should be filed before the committee and before the court, together with an affidavit of the president of the state association undertaking to abide by the reforms.
• Any transfer of funds shall take place to the state associations (that have accepted these terms) only after compliance is affected.