Former BCCI head Anurag Thakur approaches Supreme Court seeking amendment to former court-decision

What's the story

Anurag Thakur, the former BCCI chief, is keen to get back to his position at the helm of the board as evident from his latest action of filing an application in the Supreme Court. The application aims at the amendment of the order passed in early January 2017 that saw him removed from the position of President.

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In the wake of several corruption allegations heavily linked to the IPL, the apex court had appointed a committee with retired chief justice R.M. Lodha at its head. This was in 2015, and as investigations followed in June 2016, it was understood that president Thakur, along with the then secretary, Ajay Shirke, had "obstructed" the order for carrying out the mandated Lodha Committee reforms. They were then suspended them from their positions.

There was also a widespread view among the jury that Thakur was liable to be prosecuted with charges of contempt for having impeded the orders of a three-judge bench.

In the order issued by the court on 2 January 2017, it was announced that Thakur would be removed from the role of President. With the positions of power in BCCI vacant, the court also decided to appoint a four-member Committee of Administrators (CoA) - of which only two remain in the chair now, to get the reforms implemented and carry out the administrative tasks of the board.

The details

Thakur has now made an appeal to the Supreme Court hoping that an order is passed "permitting impleadment" regarding the issue, so that he can return to his prior position at the helm of cricket administration in the country.

He was able to appeal only because in July 2017, the Supreme Court had dropped contempt accusations and prevented any proceeding for perjury happening against Thakur. It happened after the latter tendered an unconditional and unequivocal apology in person at the Supreme Court.

What's next

Out of the initially appointed four-member panel Committee of Administrators (Vinod Rai, Ramachandra Guha, Vikram Limaye and Diana Edulji), only two, namely Mr. Vinod and Mr. Guha remain in office. Mr. Vinod is an ex-CAG for India and he has been entrusted with the responsibility of making sure that BCCI's administration is in par with the Lodha Reforms until fresh elections are called for administrative roles.

If the Supreme Court goes back on its previous mandate, there is a possibility that Thakur will take over from Vinod Rai and the CoA, as the president BCCI once again.