The Supreme Court on Wednesday vacated its order restraining other courts from hearing disputes related to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and state cricket associations.
The apex court, on March 14, 2019, had restrained all other courts across the country from entertaining or proceeding with any matter pertaining to cash-rich BCCI and state cricket associations till the court-appointed mediator and senior advocate P S Narasimha submitted his report on pending disputes.
Narasimha, who was then assisting the bench as an amicus curiae, was appointed as the mediator for resolving pending disputes related to cricket administration at the BCCI.
A bench comprising justices L Nageswara Rao, Hemant Gupta and Ajay Rastogi, in a hearing conducted through video conferencing, took note of submissions of various lawyers on behalf of state cricket bodies and decided to vacate the order.
All those petitioners, who have asked for various reliefs which could be decided by the high courts, have been now permitted to go to the respective high courts to avail their remedies, Narasimha said.
The top court took note of the fact that a large number of applications have become infructuous as the reliefs, sought in them, have already been granted in the mediation process.
The apex court has now posted some pending interim applications for hearing in the third week of January next year.
The apex court, while appointing Narasimha as the mediator, had said that he will hear the parties on the issues raised by them and make recommendations to the court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) for BCCI.
"In case the parties are not satisfied, this court will hear the matter," the bench had said and had asked him to look into the issues raised by several cricket associations about release of funds to them and make appropriate recommendations to the CoA.
In 2017, the apex court had appointed CoA, headed by former Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) Vinod Rai, to run the affairs of BCCI and implement the court-approved recommendations of Justice R M Lodha panel on reforms in the cash-rich cricket body.
