BCCI challenges Jadeja's petition

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, JULY 11. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) today challenged the maintainability of the suspended cricketer, Ajay Jadeja's writ petition challenging the Board's decision to ban him from playing cricket for five years.

Counsel for the Board, Mr. K.K. Venugopal, submitted before Mr. Justice Mukul Mudgal that no writ under Article 226 of the Constitution could be issued to it. He said that the Board was not a statutory body or any other authority of the state nor was it any instrumentality of it against which a writ could be issued under Article 226.

The Board had none of the attributes of the state as it was a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. The Board is a subscriber to the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the International Cricket Council (ICC) and its full member. A member of an international organisation could not be treated as an instrumentality of the state, the counsel said.

Besides, the Union Government did not provide any financial aid to the Board; hence a writ could not be issued against it as the same could be issued only against the state or an instrumentality thereof, Mr. Venugopal said.

He further said that the Government had told the court on oath that the Board was not a statutory body. The counsel justified the Board's action against Jadeja saying that there was sufficient evidence to justify the ban.

If Jadeja had any grievance against the Board, he could seek a remedy against it through a civil suit, Mr. Venugopal said. The High Court had on February 9 issued show cause notices to the BCCI and others on Jadeja's writ petition.

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