Supreme Court seeks clarification on voting eligibility

The Supreme Court on Thursday made it clear that the disputing parties involved in the Indian board elections have to first clarify who actually is eligible to vote. Only after that will the court spell out the terms of reference for the new observer for the elections likely to be named shortly.

A Bench comprising Justice BP Singh and Justice SB Sinha asked the counsels for the contending parties to file short notes including on whether the BCCI rules allow associate members of the board the same voting right as the full members. The court said the parties should clarify their position by coming Monday and fixed the next hearing for October 25.

KK Venugopal, the counsel appearing for the BCCI, said that according to the board's rule only the full members were entitled to vote, but senior advocate Harish Salve appearing for the Netaji Cricket Club, Chennai opposed the submission saying that the issue should be decided by the court. The Bihar Cricket Association, one of the petitioners, is an associate member.

The disputing parties have also failed to arrive at a consensus on some other issues and the court asked them to clarify their stand. The counsels agreed that they will identify various questions associated with the board's election and will come up with suggestions.

The opposing factions had on Wednesday suggested the name of TS Krishnamurthy, the former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), as the observer for the board elections.

Krishnamurthy virtually consented to take up the job and told PTI : "In principle, I have no problem in functioning as observer for the elections but can only comment on it when I am contacted officially. I am waiting for an official communication from the parties to the case."

Earlier, the petitioners had challenged the Kolkata High Court judgement removing two former chief justices of India as observers for the board elections that were deferred after the AGM met on September 23. On October 3, the Supreme Court asked the contending parties to suggest the name of an observer who was preferably not a judge.

As late as October 18, when the counsels for both factions met in New Delhi they had failed to reach an agreement on a consensus candidate. Usha Nath Banerjee and Radha Rangaswamy, the lawyers representing the office-bearers of the board, suggested the names of the former Indian captains Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Viswanath and Bishan Singh Bedi. Ankur Chawla and Prashant Kumar, the counsels for the rival faction, suggested Nari Contractor, Polly Umrigar and Hanumant Singh, all former captains as well.