The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed BJP MP and former BCCI president Anurag Thakur to take part in the activities of the cricket board.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi passed the order while holding that a 2017 Supreme Court directive barring him from holding any post in the BCCI did not mean that he had been banned for life.

This ended Anurag’s nine-year exile from the BCCI. However, the official order had not been uploaded on the Supreme Court’s website till the time of filing the report.

In July 2017, the apex court had passed a judgment directing that Thakur would not hold any post in the BCCI after he was held guilty of deliberately trying to undermine the court order for the implementation of the Justice R.M. Lodha panel’s recommendation in 2016 on reforms in the BCCI.

It was alleged that Thakur had sought to obstruct the implementation of the reforms and had also tried to influence the ICC by seeking a fiat from the international body to overturn the Lodha committee’s directive for the inclusion of a C&AG nominee in the board’s governance structure.

The top court in 2019 did not punish Thakur for contempt after he tendered an unconditional apology for his actions.

“Everything fell on me (Thakur) because I was the president (of BCCI). I am only saying this can’t continue now forever,” senior advocate P.S. Patwalia, appearing for Thakur, said.

The court had, however, asked Thakur to cease and desist from holding any post in the BCCI.

Thursday’s order was passed by the apex court on an application moved by Thakur pleading that the 2017 order cannot be construed as a permanent ban on his return to the BCCI.

“We find it a fit case to apply the doctrine of proportionality, so as to hold that neither this court intended to impose a lifelong ban nor, in the facts and circumstances of this case, such a severe embargo is otherwise warranted,” the bench said.