BCCI appeal in Jadeja case admitted

The Delhi high court on Tuesday admitted an appeal by the Board of Control for Cricket in India against its earlier order, holding that cricketer Ajay Jadeja's writ petition challenging the five-year ban on him for his alleged involvement in the match-fixing scandal is maintainable.

While admitting the BCCI's revision petition against the single judge bench order, stating that "prima facie" the board is an instrumentality of the state, and court's writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution could be extended to it, a division bench comprising Justice Arun Kumar and Justice R C Chopra said it needed to be heard in detail.

Stating that though it was not expressing any opinion about the status of the BCCI, the division bench said: "The board is discharing such functions, which have to be discharged by the state."

"Whatever maybe the technical position, yes, the board must consider that it is performing an all-India function so far as managment of cricket is concerned," the court observed.

Senior advocate K K Venugopal, appearing for the board in his brief arguments, said the single judge bench order has been challenged on the grounds that the BCCI is a registered society and no writ direction could be issued against it by the court under Article 226 of the Constitution.

The single judge bench, in its iterim order on September 17, had said that Jadeja's petition is maintainable and needed to be heard on merit.

The division bench, however, declined to stay the order of single judge bench on Tuesday and said the date for hearing the matter would be fixed later.

Mail Cricket Editor