BCCI constitution is highly incapable of achieving transparency, accountability: Supreme Court

New Delhi: Lashing out at the functioning of the Board of Cricket for Control in India (BCCI), the Supreme Court has said that the board's constitution was incapable of achieving the values of transparency, objectivity and accountability, and these could only be attained by changing it.

"The inherent constitution of the BCCI is such that it is highly incapable of achieving the values of transparency, objectivity and accountability [such] that without changing its structure it can't be done so," a two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justice Ibrahim Kalifulla said, while hearing a matter related to the implementation of reforms suggested by the three-member panel led by Justice RM Lodha.

The court's remarks were made after the views presented by senior advocate Gopal Subramanium, who was appointed amicus curiae to assist the court on how the recommendations of the Lodha committee, which favoured large-scale structural reforms to the BCCI, could be implemented.

Subramanium said that if the constitution of the BCCI does not allow the values to be achieved then it could be said to be illegal as the cricket board is discharging a public function.

"You discharge a public function but you want to enjoy private status," Subramanium said. "If you have a public persona then you have to shed the private persona. This cannot be done. It [the BCCI] selects the national team for the country, it cannot be a private society. It is a public entity."

Justifying the reforms suggested by the Lodha panel, Subramanium said the board would not have had the need for these recommendations if it had adhered to the constitutional values. Subramanium added that the BCCI is the beneficiary of the recommendations as implementing them will help ensure credibility of the institution.

(With PTI inputs)