Law Commission asks BCCI to come under RTI law

The BCCI’s fairness in management has always been two-faced and while it has, time and again, asked for tax exemption, citing the players are representing the country and nominating them for the national awards and civilian honours, at the time of any legal procedure, the body has tried to paint themselves as private firm and denied to come under Right to Information Act. However, the Janus-faced nature may not last for long as the Law Commission chairman Justice B S Chauhan confirmed that a panel, appointed by them, had finalized its report to declare BCCI a Public body and would soon submit the report to Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. 

"We have found that BCCI is eminently qualified to be classified as 'state' under Article 12 of the Constitution," Justice Chauhan told ToI.

If the BCCI eventually comes under the act, then the members and board, in general, would be subjected to constitutional checks by the Supreme Court and High Courts, and people can file PILs against them questioning the fairness of various decisions, including player selection for India, states, and zones. Via PILs, the public can also question the bilateral and international agreements signed by the Indian Cricket Board with other cricket-playing nations and the International Cricket Council.

The report was prepared by examining a lot of laws and various judgments on the board by the apex court of the land and taking views from the public by Justice Chauhan and members of the panel, comprising Justice Ravi R Tripathi, S Sivakumar, and Sanjay Singh. 

The panel justified their decision by saying that BCCI had always aligned their cricketing relations with other countries as per the government's foreign policy. The panel also added that the Indian players used national colours on their kit and sported Ashok Chakras on their helmets. They added that the BCCI also nominated players for Arjuna awards and most importantly, “a politician owing allegiance to the ruling party headed the board”, cue former BCCI presidents NKP Salve, Madhavrao Scindia, RS Mahendra, Sharad Pawar, and Anurag Thakur.