In a major blow to everyone except Modi (Lalit Modi), Gauhati High Court today declared that BCCI was an “illegal” body and had no rights to conduct test matches on behalf of the country.
This decision comes on the heels of the same court declaring CBI an “unconstitutional” body. This judgment is expected to have even more far reaching impact that the earlier one.
“What crap! Now what happens to the Wankhende test match?” asked journalists, advertisers, cricket fans, West Indies players, bookies, N Srinivasan, and Arnab Goswami.
Although no tickets for Sachin’s 200th test match could be sold today due to website crashing, the news has sent shockwaves among Sachin fans, who now shudder to think of a situation where Sachin Tendulkar is identified as someone who gave his services to a private body in his entire career.
“He belongs to India!” protested a Sachin fan, “Give him Bharat Ratna before this judgment is implemented.”
The Gauhati High Court is reported to have taken note of the fact that BCCI was not a government body while its origins went back to pre-Independence era.
“BCCI is like any princely state. Its merger into India was not complete as it continued as a private society. It has no rights to use the name of India because of lack of public accountability,” the court ruled.
The court pointed out that BCCI, despite being a private body, had been getting favors from the government in tax related issues, use of public infrastructure, help from local municipalities, etc. – all of which made it a quasi public institution without public accountability, which was illegal.
The judgment was delivered during the case “Sreesanth vs Jaipur Police” where Sreesanth’s lawyer argued that the bowler could not be accused of wrongdoing as BCCI itself was illegal.
“Since BCCI is illegal, IPL is illegal, and hence all contracts related to IPL are illegal. Therefore, there is no breach of contract by Sreesanth even if he took money to underperform,” Sreesanth’s lawyer is reported to have argued.
After this verdict, Sreesanth has been acquitted of the spot-fixing charges, though the case against him for stealing a towel remains in place. The hearing in that towel theft case will continue.
While Sreesanth is celebrating, the judgment clearly has not gone down too well with the BCCI, which has asked the government to go to Supreme Court to get a stay over the court order.
“It’s true that BCCI was formed before Independence, but so was the Congress party. We are sympathetic to the BCCI view on this,” Congress leader and BCCI Vice President Rajeev Shukla told this writer.
“Srinivasan is known to continue even if court declares something illegal and unconstitutional, but we don’t want to take that route as the judiciary could get offended,” a BCCI source revealed why they were looking for government help.
While the government is all set to appeal against the verdict, some Sachin fans fear that this could be another instance where Sachin gets stuck while nearing a milestone.
“The case may drag on for ever and he might get stuck with 199 test matches,” a Sachin fan revealed his deepest fears.
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