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Regular-article-logo Saturday, 11 May 2024

Status quo till end of summer vacation & relief for CEO

More relief for Board CEO Rahul Johri

Lokendra Pratap Sahi Calcutta Published 06.05.19, 09:38 PM
Vinod Rai

Vinod Rai The Telegraph file picture

All matters relating to the Board of Control for Cricket in India, which is effectively being run by a Committee of Administrators (CoA) for well over 27 months, will only be taken up by the Supreme Court on/after July 1, when it reopens after the summer vacation.

All matters would naturally include the “Application for Directions” moved by a New Delhi-based lady, Rashmi Nair, against the Board CEO Rahul Johri.

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So, while there’s more relief for Johri, that status quo will continue for the next two months or so at least would almost surely please the other principal dramatis personae as well.

Well-placed sources of The Telegraph are convinced about that.

Principal dramatis personae include the three members of the CoA — chairman Vinod Rai, Diana Edulji and Lt Gen. (Retd) Ravi Thodge. Also the Board’s acting president CK Khanna, acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary and treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry — all of whom appear to have turned most docile after bouts of aggression.

The Supreme Court was to have taken up the Board-specific matters, including Ms Nair’s “Application for Directions,” on April 25. However, that was not done and the next date of hearing by Justices Sharad Arvind Bobde and Abhay Manohar Sapre was expected to be May 2. There was no hearing on that date either.

It’s assumed that the Board-related matters got relegated to the background as Justice Bobde was chairing the In-House Committee looking into allegations of sexual harassment against CJI Ranjan Gogoi.

On Monday, the Board-specific matters were finally raised before Justices Bobde and S. Abdul Nazeer. The Bench directed: “List the application along with other applications before appropriate Bench after (the) ensuing summer vacation.”

The counsel(s) representing the Cricket Association of Bihar raised the matters, but it couldn’t be confirmed whether Ms Nair’s lawyer(s) too got into the picture.

Questions are, of course, being asked why the three office-bearers of the Board haven’t collectively sought an early hearing of the matter related to Johri.

Johri, it may be recalled, got a 2-1 verdict by a so-called independent committee constituted by the CoA to probe allegations of sexual harassment.

The apex court sits till Friday, before the vacation sets in.

As for the CJI Gogoi issue, the Justice Bobde-headed panel ruled: “The In-House Committee has found no substance in the allegations contained in the complaint dated April 19, 2019, of a former employee of the Supreme Court of India.”

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