Lodha report: Supreme Court orders ministers, bureaucrats out of BCCI

The Supreme Court today ordered that no politician or bureaucrat should hold an office in the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the country's highest body governing the game and directed a cleansing of the world's richest national cricket body of politicians and bureaucrats.

The apex court accepted most of the recommendations of the Lodha Committee, a three-member panel headed by former Chief Justics of india, Rajendra Mal Lodha, it had appointed to look into the functioning of the BCCI.

In a much needed and hugely welcome step that will give way to a new look BCCI with more transparency, the court also directed the committee to oversee a court-directed transition of the country's cricketing monopoly.

"In the result, we accept the report submitted by the committee and the recommendations made therein with such modifications and clarifications as have been set out by us in the body of this judgment," the bench said in its order. "The transition from the old to the new system recommended by the Committee shall have to be under the watchful supervision of this court.

"The supervision of the transition can, in our opinion, be left to be undertaken by the committee not only because it has a complete understanding of and insight into the nature of the problems sought to be remedied but also the ability to draw timelines for taking of steps necessary for the implementation of the proposed reforms. We, therefore, request the committee headed by Justice Lodha to draw appropriate timelines for implementation of the recommendations and supervise the implementation thereof,'' the court said.

In its report submitted in January, the three-member panel comprising former Chief Justice of India RM Lodha and two of his colleagues had recommended age and tenure restrictions for top officials and cooling off period between successive terms for top officials among others.

"We allow most of the recommendations of the Justice Lodha panel on administrative changes in the BCCI," a two-judge division bench headed by current Chief Justice of India Tirath Singh Thakur and Justice FMI Kalifulla, said in their order.

"Nobody above the age of 70 will be office bearer of the BCCI. A person cannot be simultaneously an office-bearer in the state cricket association as well as in the BCCI."

In other recommendations, all of which would have to implemented within six months by the BCCI, the panel wanted the board to be brought under the Right to Information Act, which would allow citizens access to information so far held secret by the board.