SC restrains N Srinivasan from taking charge as BCCI President

Controversial BCCI president N Srinivasan was on Friday restrained from assuming the top post if reelected until further orders by the Supreme Court which asked why he was at the helm when his soninlaw was chargesheeted in the IPL spotfixing case In the high voltage proceedings the court which allowed the Board to hold its proposed Annual General Meeting scheduled for Sunday in Chennai said Srinivasan will have to wait to take charge if elected again as president of the cashrich body until it decides the matter quotIn the meanwhile the proposed AGM of BCCI will be held on September 29 and the election in the AGM can also be held In case Srinivasan is elected as President he will not take charge until further ordersquot a bench comprising Justices A K Patnaik and J S Kehar said BCCI Presidentinexile N Srinivasan File Pic The moment BCCI39s counsel said that Srinivasan was still in quotchargequot of board39s affairs Justice Patnaik thumped the bench and said as to how he could be at the helm quotwhen his soninlaw has been charge sheetedquot quotWhy he is in charge as the BCCI President if his soninlaw has been charge sheeted Why you Srinivasan are so keen to be elected quotWhen the Supreme Court of India is hearing the matter then why you are so keen What about your soninlaw Hold the election but don39t take charge till we decide itquot Justice Patnaik said questioning the holding of elections when the apex court was seized of the matter quotWe do not know anyone We only know cricket We only know BCCIquot the bench observed and posted the matter for hearing on Monday But a defiant Srinivasan said he would stand for election as quotnobodyquot has stopped him from doing it quotNobody has stopped me from contesting elections and attending the AGM Before taking my comments kindly go through the observations made by the honourable Supreme Court quotIt states clearly that I have not been stopped from attending the AGM and I am also going to contest the election why shall I not contest the electionsquot fumed Srinivasan Before the bench made the stinging remarks senior advocte Harish Salve appearing for Cricket Association of Bihar CAB pressed for stay of the AGM and also entered into spat with BCCI39s counsel C A Sundaram when he made an attempt to interrupt him Salve by saying there is no quotallegation or whisperquot against Srinivasan or Chennai Super King CSK owned by India Cements Salve who raised his pitch to halt Sundaram referred to the chargesheet filed by Mumbai police in the IPL spotfixing case against various accused including Gurunath Meiyappan soninlaw of Srinivasan and principal of CSK and said the situation was quotunprecedentedquot warranting judicial interference Salve said quotYou BCCI cannot wear two hats side by sidequot Citing apex court judgements he said BCCI was involved in public functions and has been allowed to use stadiums to promote the game of cricket Seeking to injunct BCCI from holding AGM and elections he said the tenure of BCCI president came to an end on September 9 and the CAB39s plea be decided first The soninlaw of Srinivasan has been chargesheeted by Mumbai police Salve said adding the charges include that he passed on information such as CSK would score 130 to 140 runs in a particular match against Rajasthan Royals and quotCSK scored 141 and this is spot fixingquot Blaming the quotadversequot media coverage the counsel for Srinivasan opposed the plea against him saying quotit is really a long shot It is my daugther who has chosen the soninlaw and I have no rolequot The court39s order came on the plea of CAB seeking interim injunction restraining Srinivasan from contesting for the post of BCCI President in the AGM to be held in Chennai CAB has sought a direction to BCCI that Srinivasan be not inducted in any committee of the Board till the matter pending in the apex court is decided The court had earlier posted for October the hearing on cross appeals filed by BCCI and CAB against the Bombay High Court39s verdict declaring as illegal the probe panel appointed by the Board to look into the spotfixing scandal It had on August 30 heard the petition filed by Aditya Verma Secretary CAB challenging the high court39s order refusing to appoint a fresh committee to probe the scam The court had also issued notices to BCCI Srinivasan his company India Cements which owns IPL team Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals on the plea CAB has pleaded that when the high court declared the panel of two judges as unconstitutional it should have appointed a fresh committee to look into the issue The apex court had on August 7 refused to grant interim stay on high court verdict derailing the plan of Srinivasan to return as chief of BCCI Srinivasan had stepped aside from discharging his duties as BCCI President in the light of spotfixing and betting scandal which allegedly involved Chennai Super Kings team39s former principal Meiyappan The high court order had come on July 30 just two days after the panel comprising two former judges of the Madras High Court Justices T Jayarama Chouta and R Balasubramanian submitted its report giving a clean chit to all those against whom the probe was conductedu00a0