Kerala High Court sought BCCI’s stand on a plea filed by S Sreesanth challenging the life ban imposed on him by the national governing body after the bowler was found to be indulging in spot-fixing activity during IPL 2013. A bench of Justice P B Suresh Kumar sought the BCCI’s stand, issuing notice to the panel of administrators, appointed to oversee BCCI’s operations, headed by Vinod Rai. The former CAG, Rai, has been asked to reply before the next hearing on June 19.
BCCI had earlier filed a counter-affidavit on the issue before the court in response to the plea by Sreesanth, who had challenged the continuation of the life ban imposed on him from cricket despite being acquitted on match-fixing charges.
In its affidavit, the BCCI had said “the decision of the sessions court to acquit the petitioner from the criminal charges has no impact whatsoever on the decision of the internal disciplinary committee of the BCCI to ban the petitioner from playing cricket tournaments organised by the BCCI and/or its affiliates.”
BCCI had said the question before the sessions court was whether the petitioner (and other accused) was liable to incur penal consequences under relevant criminal statutes. On the other hand, the question before the BCCI Disciplinary Committee was whether the petitioner was guilty of match fixing, corruption and gambling and violation of the internal disciplinary rules of the BCCI, the Board had said.
The standard of proof required under a penal statute is much higher than the proof required for a disciplinary inquiry, it had said.
The IPL spot-fixing scandal had 36 accused including Sreesanth alongside other players Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila and all of them were discharged by Patiala House Court in July 2015. BCCI, however, has refused to change its disciplinary decision despite the verdict.
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