New Delhi, Oct. 15: The Supreme Court will on Tuesday hear the Indian cricket board's review petition that seeks the recall of its July 18 judgment directing implementation of the Lodha panel reforms and the recusal of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur from the case.

Sources told The Telegraph that the August 16 petition had been listed for a closed-door hearing by the bench of Justices Thakur and S.A. Bobde at 1.50pm on October 18.

Justice Bobde will be replacing Justice Ibrahim Kalifulla, who has retired since passing the July 18 order along with Justice Thakur. But the board believes that Justice Thakur holds a "prejudice" against it and wants him to remove himself from the case.

There has so far been no indication that the Chief Justice might oblige. Even the day before, on October 17, Justice Thakur will be examining two affidavits from two senior board officials in connection with the case.

One of the affidavits is to come from Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Anurag Thakur, whom the court has asked to explain the charge that he sought the International Cricket Council's help to block the Lodha reforms.

Anurag Thakur is accused of nudging the world cricket body to declare that implementing the reforms would amount to government interference in the board's affairs and cause India to be disqualified from international cricket.

The second affidavit has to be filed by the board's general manager (game development and administration), Ratnakar Shetty. He has to explain why he had moved an affidavit before the court against the proposed reforms when the board's secretary and president alone had the locus to do so.

Justice Thakur has so far dealt with the board with a firm hand. Board officials believe that if he leaves the case, the wholly new bench that will hear it might be more sympathetic towards them, sources have told this newspaper.

Under the rules, a review petition is heard by the same bench that delivered the original verdict unless one or more of the judges have retired. Justice Thakur retires on January 3 next year.

Never before has a judge recused himself from hearing a review petition. History suggests that the chances of a review petition succeeding before the apex court is less than one per cent, anyway.

Several of Justice Thakur's observations during the hearing of the board's original petition against the proposed reforms had left the cricket authorities aggrieved. For instance, he had censured the board for appointing a "demented person" like Jagmohan Dalmiya as its head in the past.

The board's review petition, moved through counsel Abhinav Mukherjee, cites newspaper reports quoting Justice Thakur as saying, in a case relating to the All India Football Federation, that the football body "might require the BCCI treatment".

This "has raised an apprehension in the mind of the petitioner that the review petition filed by it would not be considered in a fair and objective manner", the petition says.

It adds that the board feels "the said statement discloses a prejudice against the petitioner in the mind of" Justice Thakur.

The petition claims the top court has, in dealing with the case, disregarded the doctrine of separation of powers by overlooking various parliamentary and state laws and ignoring the truth that the courts can only interpret laws and not formulate them.