Has the BCCI erred by allowing TN, Maharashtra & Haryana to attend the upcoming AGM?

When did Haryana, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu cricket associations comply with the recommendations of the Supreme Court-approved Lodha Commission? This is the million-dollar question being asked in Indian cricket circles right now as the three states have been allowed by BCCI’s Electoral Official AK Joti to take part in the cricket body’s AGM on 24 December.

The mystery of their sudden compliance was brought to the notice of the BCCI Amicus Curiae by crusader Sanjeev Gupta. In an email on Wednesday, Gupta informed the Amicus Curiae that the three states, which were barred from taking part in the AGM last October for not complying with the Lodha reforms, are compliant all of a sudden.

Inside sources suggest that if Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra were barred from attending the AGM last year for non-compliance, they had to approach either the Supreme Court (in absence of the Committee of Administrators), or the Amicus Curiae, for participating in the AGM this year. But that clearly hasn't been done.

"If at all these three states are compliant, there isn’t any document in the Apex Court nor in the BCCI website to prove so after the electoral officer has made them compliant," our source said.

According to Sanjeev Gupta, the BCCI has declared the "final list of electoral rolls", where Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra are surprisingly present. Interestingly, these are the three states which had strongly opposed the Lodha reforms.

Former Tamil Nadu Cricket Association boss N Srinivasan was at the forefront of the opposition, while former Maharashtra Cricket Association president Ajay Shirke was believed to have stalled the reforms - which eventually led to his forceful exit as BCCI secretary.

"The respected Supreme Court appointed you as Amicus to assist them in the BCCI case, so that they pronounce timely verdicts for immediate compliance, upon your guidance. Thus the onus is on you to apprise respected Supreme Court that their verdicts are decimated every now and then with impunity. Therefore, either the Supreme Court should forthwith protect the sanctity / compliance of their own verdicts by enforcing the compliance or they should repeal their verdicts," Gupta wrote in his email.

"The learned BCCI Electoral Officer declared the final list of Electoral Roll and summary of findings without taking into consideration my six precise / factual objections addressed to him on his email ID. Without taking into cognizance of the objections, how will the Electoral Officer ensure compliance of Supreme Court Verdicts in letter & spirit in BCCI?" questioned Gupta.

Gupta has made it clear that he has no vested interest, but is merely fighting for 100% compliance of the SC-approved Lodha reforms.

"Supreme Court approved the BCCI Constitution as a Holy Book for me. No individual can be ever above the Law of the Land," Gupta added.