SC orders removal of Anurag Thakur as BCCI President

New Delhi: In a huge setback to Cricket administrator, the Supreme Court on Monday ordered to remove Anurag Thakur as the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), stating that all the board officials who do not fall in line with the reforms suggested by the Lodha committee will have to leave.

The apex court also ordered to sack the BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke and issued a contempt notice to Anurag Thakur, who is a BJP lawmaker.

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Two weeks ago in the previous hearing of the case, the court had said that Thakur seemed to have "committed perjury" after it came to know that he had made a false statement on approaching the International Cricket Council (ICC) to clarify if a suggestions made by the Lodha committee amounted to interference in the board's functioning.

The court, on Monday, said that all the recommendations made by the Lodha panel must be implemented which means that all Cricket administrators over 70 years of age must resign.

The SC verdict has come after months of bitter court battle between the BCCI and the Lodha committee, which was appointed by the Supreme Court in the wake of a betting scandal in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

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The committee recommended some sweeping changes in the way the board is run and led and had complained to the court that the board was refusing to implement them.

Denying reacting over the SC order, Shirke said, "I don't regret anything. I don't have any personal ambitions."

The top court had set December 3 as the deadline for implementation of the recommendations of the Lodha committee, headed by former Chief Justice of India RM Lodha. But the board had pleaded its inability to implement all the reforms, which include large-scale structural and management changes, in the given period.