TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2018 (8) TMI 2062
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....atik R. Bombarde, AOR, Mr. Vikas Mehta, AOR, Mr. Rauf Rahim, AOR For the Respondent : Mr. Senthil Jagadeesan, AOR, Mr. Nirnimesh Dube, AOR, Mr. Abhishek Singh, AOR, Mr. Venkita Subramoniam T.R, AOR, Mr. V. K. Biju, AOR, Mr. Abhay Pratap Singh, Adv., Mr. A.K. Upadhyay, Adv., Mr. Tushar Mehta, Sr. Adv., Mr. Siddharth Garg, Adv., Mr. Snehasish Mukherjee, AOR, Mr. Aditya Soni, Adv., Mr. Shree Pal Singh, AOR, Mr. Sarvesh Singh, AOR, Mr. Santosh Mishra, AOR, Mr. Santosh Kumar, AOR, Mr. Ritesh Kumar Chowdhary, AOR, Mr. Rashmi Singh, AOR, Mr. Rameshwar Prasad Goyal, AOR, Mr. Rajiv Nanda, AOR, Mr. Raghavendra S. Srivatsa, AOR, Mr. R. Chandrachud, AOR, Mr. Praveen Swarup, AOR, Ms. Pragya Baghel, AOR, Mr. Mukesh Kumar Maroria, AOR, Mr. Manju Sharma, AOR, Mr. Liz Mathew, AOR, Ms. Neela Gokhale, Adv., Mr. Ilam Paridi, Adv., Ms. Shradha Agrawal, Adv., Ms. Kamakshi S. Mehlwal, AOR, Mr. K. K. Mohan, AOR, Mr. Gaurav Sharma, AOR, Mr. Gagan Gupta, AOR, Mr. E. C. Agrawala, AOR, Mr. Chirag M. Shroff, AOR, Mr. Rahul Mehra, Adv., Ms. Neha Sangwan, Adv., Ms. Sanjana Nangia, Adv., Mrs. Monisha Suri, Adv., Mr. Sachin Das, Adv., Mr. Rajiv Narain, Adv., Mr. Chandra Bhushan Prasad, AOR, Ms. Bina Gupta, AOR, M....
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....d to disqualification or qualification of the representative is kept open." (Emphasis supplied) On 23 August 2017, the CoA was entrusted to prepare a draft constitution in accordance with the judgment rendered on 18 July 2016 and the order dated 24 July 2017. Modalities were evolved by this Court to consider the concerns of stakeholders by ensuring that the draft constitution is duly circulated between all the counsel so that their suggestions could be evaluated. This Court observed : "we...direct the Committee of Administrators to prepare a draft Constitution in terms of the main judgment as well as the order dated 24th July, 2017. A copy of the draft Constitution shall be handed over to Advocate-on-Record assisting the learned counsel for the respondents. A copy of the draft Constitution be also handed over to Mr. B.K. Prasad, learned counsel assisting Mr. Ranjit Kumar, learned Solicitor General . Suggestions, if any, to the draft Constitution be handed over to the learned counsel assisting the learned Amicus Curiae and Mr. Parag P. Tripathi so that they can prepare a chart and will be in a position to give their comments. ... On the next date of hearing, besi....
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.... Office Bearers of B.C.C.I shall not hold a General Body Meeting." (Emphasis supplied) 3 On 27 October 2017, the CoA filed a draft constitution for BCCI and its office bearers. Suggestions to the draft received from state cricket associations and other parties were filed by the CoA together with comments on the proposed suggestions, in a status report dated 12 January 2018. On 1 May 2018, this Court noted that suggestions to the draft constitution have been filed and would be finalized by the Court. In the interest of fairness, it was however observed that any further suggestions that a state cricket association may have, could still be forwarded to the amicus. Accordingly, the following directions were issued : "A draft Constitution meant for the B.C.C.I. and its Office Bearers has been filed on 27.10.2017. Suggestions to the same by various State Cricket Associations have also been filed and the same have been attached to the draft Constitution. The draft Constitution shall be finalized by this Court. In the meantime, if any State Cricket Association intends to file any further suggestion, they may submit the same in bullet points to Mr. Gopal Subramanium, learned Ami....
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....r Gopal Subramanium, learned amicus Curiae under the following heads : a) Issues relating to membership and Associate Membership; a) Number of members in Selection Committee and related matters; b) Cooling off period; c) Disqualifications; d) Constitution of the Apex council; e) Conditions imposed on State Associations; f) Power/Duties of Office Bearers and Professional Management (CEO); g) No interference at all in the functioning of BCCI; and h) Binding value of Frequently Asked Questions issued by the Hon'ble Justice Lodha committee. We propose to examine the issues which have been raised during the course of hearing. A. Issues relating to membership and Associate Membership: One State - One Vote 6 Rule (3)(a)(i) of the draft constitution contemplates that membership of BCCI shall consist of (i) Full members and; (ii) Associate members. The text of the draft constitution provides thus : "(ii) Full Members A. Each State shall be represented by a state cricket association duly recognized by the BCCI and such associations shall be Full Members. No State shall have more than one Full Member at any given point of time. B. The associations who are the....
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..... The Lodha Committee relied upon territoriality as a determining factor for the grant of full membership. Railways, Services and Universities not being tied to the territory of one state were denied full membership. Though Gujarat fielded three cricket teams (Gujarat, Saurashtra and Baroda) and so did Maharashtra (Mumbai, Maharashtra and Vidarbha) both states would each have one Full membership. The Lodha Committee recommended that the status of associate member should be granted to those members who do not represent any territory. 8 In the principal judgment of this Court dated 18 July 2016, the one state - one vote norm was accepted. While doing so this Court observed thus : "62. That brings us to the question whether "One State One vote" recommended by the Committee suffers from any legal or other infirmity sufficient for this Court to reject the same. The recommendation made by the Committee has a two-fold impact on the current state of affairs in BCCI. The first is the reduction of some of the Associations and Clubs from the full membership of BCCI to the status of Associate Members. The other aspect of the recommendation is the reduction of the full membership of at least....
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....he three associations each in the States of Maharashtra and Gujarat. The amicus submits that the order of this Court mandates that there should be an annual rotation of the constituent members of Maharashtra and Gujarat so that every year, one of the three constituent members would be capable of voting and participating in the general body. Moreover, it has been submitted that for the elections to the Apex Council which take place once every three years, the first member association which has already cast a vote should not be able to cast a vote at the end of three years but must pass it on to the next association in turn. In this manner, it has been suggested that all the three constituent associates of the two states will have due opportunity to not only participate in the affairs of the general body but would have an opportunity to vote at the end of three years. In the view of the amicus, a rotational policy is eminently practicable for Maharashtra and Gujarat and the mandate of the principal judgment brings about parity and fairness so that no constituent member is excluded from the general body for a period exceeding one year. However, it has not been explained how, once full....
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....t Association in the Ranji Trophy. The team has won over 41 titles, the most recent being in 2015-16. It has also come runner-up in the final of the Ranji Trophy a total of 4 times. The association owns the Wankhede Stadium. Famous cricketers produced by MCA, amongst others, include Abey Kuruvilla, Ajinkya Rahane, Ajit Wadekar, Ashok Mankad, Chandu Borde, Dilip Sardesai, Dilip Vengsarkar, Eknath Solkar, Farokh Engineer, Jatin Paranjpe, Polly Umrigar, Ravi Shastri, Rohit Sharma, Rustomji Jamshedji, Rusi Modi, Sachin Tendulkar, Sandeep Patil, Sanjay Manjrekar, Sunil Gavaskar, Vijay Manjrekar, Vijay Merchant, Vinod Kambli, Wasim Jaffer etc." "SUARASHTRA CRICKET ASSOCIATION Saurashtra is one of three cricket teams based in Gujarat which competes in the Ranji Trophy (the others being Baroda and Gujarat). Formerly it was known as Nawanagar Cricket Team. Nawanagar was an Indian princely state in the historical Halar region, located on the southern shores of the Gulf of Kutch. Ranjitsinhji often known as 'Ranji', was the ruler of the Indian princely state of Nawanagar from 1907 to 1933, as Maharaja Jam Saheb, and a noted Test cricketer who played for the English cricket team. He als....
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.... Club and the Cricket Club of India. Neither of the two Clubs fields teams in the Ranji Trophy. They cannot be placed at par with the other state associations. Railways 11 The contribution of Railways to the cause of Indian Cricket is noteworthy. It has been pointed out before the Court that : "RAILWAYS SPORTS PROMOTION BOARD Railways Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) is a sports board run by the Indian Railways. It promotes 29 sporting disciplines and owns the Karnail Singh Stadium in New Delhi. RSPB is a member of the Board of Control for Cricket in India and RSPB fields the Railways' cricket team in domestic cricket competitions in India such as the Ranji Trophy. In recent years since 2000, Railways have won the trophy twice and become runners-up as well. As Champions of the Ranji Trophy, they have played the Irani Trophy twice, emerging victorious on both occasions. Famous International Cricketers include Mahendra Singh Dhoni (played for South Eastern Railways & was employed as a Train Ticket Examiner), Murli Kartik, Sanjay Bangar, Karn Sharma. In the recently concluded ICC Women's World Cup 2017, the Indian Women's Team reached the finals of the tournament where 10 o....
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....not be granted. On the contribution by the Services team to the cause of Indian cricket, we take note of the following : "SERVICE SPORTS CONTROL BOARD The aim of the Service Sports Control (SSCB) is to conduct inter-services sports championships to select and to train services sports persons. The board initially was known as the Army Sports Control Board and was established in 1919. Postindependence, it was rechristened as Service Sports Control Board and all the three services are running the organization on a rotational basis. The Services cricket team plays in the Ranji Trophy, the premier domestic first-class cricket competition in India. Under the auspices of the SSCB, the players represent the Indian armed services. They first played in the Ranji Trophy in 1949-50. They have played about 320 matches in the Ranji Trophy." Similarly as regards the Association of Indian Universities, we may note that : "ALL INDIA UNIVERSITIES Many Indian Universities players went on to play Test cricket. From the first side in 1949-50, for example, Nana Joshi, Pankaj Roy, Polly Umrigar, Gulabrai Ramchand, Deepak Shodhan and Subhash Gupte played Tests for India. Three of the 197071 ....
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....teams in the world. Senior selectors watch over several tournaments during the course of the domestic cricketing season, from August to April every year. These are : "1. Ranji Trophy league matches 2. Ranji Trophy knock out matches 3. Vijay Hazare League matches 4. Vijay Hazare knock out matches 5. Mustaq Ali league matches 6. Mustaq Ali Knock out matches 7. Irani Trophy 8. Duleep Trophy 9. Deodhar Trophy." 20 Apart from domestic cricket, senior selectors also witness India-A team matches and matches across different formats at home and overseas. National teams are required to be selected across different formats in accordance with the ICC schedule. Senior selectors are also part of the team management that selects the 'playing eleven' of the Indian team on the day prior to a match. On an average, it has been stated, a senior selector travels for nearly 280 days in a year, with a break during the IPL. Having regard to the vastness of the country and the need to effectively select from a wide pool of talent, it has been submitted that restricting the Selection Committee to three persons is not in the interest of the game and that a five-member selection team....
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....he Apex Council on a quarterly basis." "Clause 26(2)A(ii) The Men's Selection Committee shall consist of five persons to be appointed by a Cricket Advisory Committee comprising of reputed former international cricketers identified by the BCCI at the annual General Meeting, subject to the following criteria: (a) Every member of the Men's Selection Committee should have played a minimum of (i) Seven Test Matches; or (ii) Thirty First class Matches; or (iii) Ten One Day International Matches and twenty First Class Matches. (b) Every member of the Men's Selection Committee should have retired from the game at least five years previously. The senior most among the members of the Men's Selection Committee shall be appointed as the Chairperson." "Clause 26 (2) B (i) The Junior Cricket Committee shall consist of five persons to be appointed by the BCCI at the Annual General Meeting, on such terms and conditions as may be decided by the Apex Council from time to time. Only former players who have played a minimum of 25 First Class games shall be eligible to be appointed to this Committee, provided that they have retired from the game at least five years previously. The s....
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....and terms were incorporated in a section which the Committee describes as the "end of the innings". 25 In the principal judgment of this Court, the recommendations of the Lodha Committee have been accepted for the following reasons: "20...These recommendations come in the wake of a finding by the Committee that under the present dispensation office bearers could continue for any number of terms. The Committee found both of these to be unacceptable and in our opinion rightly so.... Given the problems that often arise on account of the individuals holding the office for any number of consecutive terms, the Committee was, in our opinion, justified in recommending the length of a term in office ... The three years recommended by the Committee is, in our opinion, reasonable. Similarly, the prescription of cooling off period between two terms cannot be faulted .... Similarly, an optimum period of 9 years as a member of the Apex Council cannot be termed as unreasonable....." (Emphasis supplied). 26 The recommendations of the Lodha Committee, as adopted by this Court, have been clarified in two orders dated 20 January 2017 and 24 March 2017. The clarification by this Court is that whe....
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....d either as an opportunity "to enrich himself" or as a matter involving "continuity of service". The expression "enriched himself" may have a legitimate connotation if it adverts only to experience gained. Otherwise, enrichment in the form of personal aggrandisement is precisely what was frowned upon by the Lodha Committee, and for justifiable reasons. The position of an office bearer in the state associations and in the BCCI is not a matter of 'service' in the conventional sense. Office bearers should not construe their position as employees with a vested right to a particular tenure of service. Undoubtedly, the submission that individuals must continue for a period which enables them to develop experience in the administration of the game cannot be discounted. Equally, it is a matter of concern that vested interests and conflicts of interest develop around power centres which have unbridled authority. Dispersal of authority is a necessary safeguard to ensure against the perpetuation of power centres. Individuals who administer the game of cricket must realise that the game is perched far above their personal interests. Important as experience in administration is, it is far-fetch....
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....sonal interests; (ii) it ensures against the concentration of power in a few hands; (iii) it facilitates a dispersal of authority; and (iv) it encourages the generation of a wider body of experienced administrators. Cooling off must be accepted as a means to prevent a few individuals from regarding the administration of cricket as a personal turf. The game will be better off without cricketing oligopolies. 33 However, in our view, it would be appropriate to direct that a cooling off period of three years would apply after an individual holds two successive terms in office either in the BCCI, or in any state association or a combination of the two. For instance, if an office bearer has held office for two consecutive terms in any post in a state association, such an individual must face a cooling off period of three years. Likewise, if an individual has held any post as an office bearer of the BCCI for a total period of six years in succession, the individual must have a cooling off period of three years before seeking election again either to the BCCI or to a state association. The cooling off period would apply also in a situation where an individual holds a post for one term in ....
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....ible for the administration of the Board. 36 This functional distinction between the General body and the Apex Council is an institutional safeguard to ensure professional management of BCCI. The Apex Council is entrusted with the function of professional management through the Chief Executive Officer, the Chief Financial Officer and other officers who must be recruited on a transparent and professional basis. Of the nine members of the Apex Council, five (the President, Vice President, Secretary, Joint Secretary, Treasurer and a member) are to be elected by the General body. We approve clause 15 (1) in regard to the Apex Council which reads thus: "The affairs of BCCI shall be governed by the Apex Council and its framework of governance shall: (i) Enable strategic guidance of the entity; (ii) Ensure efficient monitoring of management; (iii) Ensure the performance of the respective roles, responsibilities and powers of the CEO, Managers, Cricket Committees and Standing Committees except the Governing Council; and (iv) Ensure a distribution and balance of authority so that no single individual has unfettered powers." E. Disqualifications 37 In regard to disqualificatio....