SC declines Srinivasan's plea to be reinstated as BCCI president

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Monday declined N. Srinivasan's plea to reinstate him as the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and gave two more months to the Mukul Mudgal Committee to submit the final report in the spot-fixing and betting scandal in the 2013 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) that involved 13 people, including some prominent cricketers.

Senior counsel Kapil Sibal, appealing for Srinivasan, told the court that his client has already stepped down as the BCCI president and could not remain in the same situation indefinitely. He told an apex court bench of Justice T.S.Thakur and Justice Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla that if there was nothing against Srinivasan in the report that was submitted by Justice Mudgal on August 29 then he should be restored to his position.

Sibal said that restoration of Srinivasan as BCCI president was necessary in view of the September end meeting of the its annual general body meeting of the cricket's apexA body.

Sibal told the court that Srinivasan's signatures were necessary on the accounts before they are placed before the annual general body for approval.

Saying that there was nothing adverse about the Srinivasan in the report submitted to the court by Justice Mudgal, the court said that still it could not reinstate him as probe was still on and final report has yet to come.

The court said that signatures of Srinivasan on the annual accounts of BCCI was not such a thing that warranted his reinstatement as head of the cricketing body.

However, the court asked the probe committee to consider if it was possible for it to look into individual cases of alleged wrongdoing. The court made it clear that it was entirely upto the committee to take a call and there was no direction to that affect.

In May, the apex court asked Justice (retd) Mudgal to inquire into the allegations that it had earlier submitted to it (court) in a sealed cover, naming 13 people - including some cricketers who had played in IPL 2013 - for the irregularities and had alleged inaction by Srinivasan.

The court then asked Justice Mudgal to undertake the probe despite resistance by the BCCI which held that if a new probe committee is entrusted to inquire into the allegations, "there is likelihood of the allegations being leaked to the public and such leakage will damage the reputation of the 13 people beyond repair".