Patna, March 6: A division bench of the Supreme Court has issued a notice to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA) to settle the dispute regarding the de-recognition of Bihar Cricket Association through arbitration.

The Supreme Court directive has come after the Bombay High Court in its decision in December last year had upheld the BCCI decision which recognised JSCA as its full member, following the bifurcation of Bihar in 2000.

The creation of Jharkhand had led to a dispute as to which state organisation was the right successor of the original Bihar Cricket Association (BCA), a member of the BCCI.

The division bench of Supreme Court comprising Justice G.S. Singvi and Justice A.K. Ganguli passed the order on March 4, directing the BCCI and JSCA to go for arbitration and submit the report within four weeks.

The apex court decision came after the Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB) approached the apex court with its plea. Earlier in December last year, Bombay High Court rejected the CAB’s plea on the same issue. The high court did not touch upon core issues like whether the registration of Bihar Cricket Association (BCA) on March 28, 2003 was legal, whether the change of name of BCA to JSCA was legal and whether Amitabh Choudhary, the JSCA president, had misused his official position and influenced the officers of the registration department of Jharkhand.

Aditya Verma, a member of CAB, said: “The decision of the Supreme Court has come at a time when Bihar is struggling to get an official cricket body because of which cricketing talents in the state are deprived of a platform to showcase their skills.”

After the bifurcation of Bihar many groups emerged in Bihar, claiming to be the real successor of the BCA.

Former cricketer and present Darbhanga MP Kirti Azad is leading the Association of Bihar Cricket (ABC), while Bihar Cricket Association (BCA) is led by Lalu Prasad.

The BCA has been awarded associate membership of the BCCI but the latter forbids its cricketers from appearing in first-class cricket tournaments, such as Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Vijay Hazare tournament and others.

The third group is CAB, headed by former cricketer Shekhar Sinha.