SC declines early hearing of Bihar's plea against BCCI chief

New Delhi, June 16 (IANS) A last ditch effort to stall Indian cricket board chief N. Srinivasan from contesting the election for the International Cricket Council's chairman was frustrated as the Supreme Court Monday declined to hold an early hearing of a plea by the Cricket Association of Bihar.

An apex court bench of Justice Vikramajit Sen and Justice Shiva Kirti Singh described as "unfair" that the matter was being brought before it after the plea was rejected by an another bench earlier.

The order came after counsel opposing the CAB's plea told the court that a bench of Justice J.S. Khehar and Justice C. Nagappan declined the plea June 12.

"It is unfair (to mention again) if it was mentioned earlier and was declined," the court told senior counsel Nalini Chidambaram Monday. She earlier urged the court to hold an early hearing on the CAB's plea.

The court remained unmoved as Chidambram submitted that if the plea was not heard early, it would become infructuous.

The International Cricket Council elections are scheduled for June 27. Srinivasan is bidding to be elected as the first chairman of the ICC. He is president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

Srinivasan's role came under cloud after a probe panel headed by Justice Mukul Mudgal, former chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, gave a report to the apex court that the allegations of betting and passing on team information against Gurunath Meiyappan, son-in-law of Srinivasan, stood proved. 

It said the allegations of spot-fixing against him needed further investigation. Meiyappan was the team principal of Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League.

The Mudgal Inquiry Committee also, in a report to the apex court given in a sealed cover, named 13 people, including some cricketers and Srinivasan. It said some allegations have surfaced against them in the course of the inquiry and needed to be investigated to ascertain their veracity. 

The court treated these allegations seriously and never made the report public as it could hurt the reputation of people named in it. 

The inquiry committee was set up Oct 8, 2013. 

The court in its May 16 order, while appointing Justice Mudgal to investigate the allegations of betting and spot fixing, said the court would hold further hearing in the matter in September and till then Sunil Gavaskar and Shiv Lal Yadav would continue to exercise the powers of the BCCI president as ordered on Mar 28, 2013.

The apex court bench of Justice B.S. Chauhan and Justice A.K. Sikri May 22 declined to entertain Srinivasan's plea seeking restoration of his powers to functions as the chief of the BCCI. 

The court said Srinivasan should approach the bench of Justice A.K. Patnaik and Justice Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla that had passed the March 28 order.