Supreme Court declines to hear Srinivasan's plea

New Delhi, May 22 (IANS) Beleaguered BCCI president N. Srinivasan will have to stay away from discharging the functions as national cricketing body chief as the Supreme Court Thursday declined to hear his plea seeking restoration of his powers.

The apex court bench of Justice B.S. Chauhan and Justice A.K. Sikri declined to hear Srinivasan's plea as, they said, they would not interfere with the order passed by another bench.

The court said Justice A.K. Patnaik, who passed the order, was very much here (in the city) and Srinivasan could approach him for modifications he was seeking in the orders passed by the bench headed by him.

"We are not going to hear. We are not here to modify the orders of any other bench. Justice Patnaik is very much here (in the city)... you can approach him," said Justice Chauhan while declining to hear Srinivasan's plea.

Declining to entertain the plea by senior counsel Nagendra Rai, Justice Sikri said: "The orders he is seeking to be modified were not passed ex-parte and he was present (through his counsel) in the court."

Justice Sikri told Rai: "You are respondent number two. You were very much present in the hearing. This not an ex-parte order. You were there when order was passed."

Srinivasan in his application said that he has been singled out for the alleged wrongdoings whereas "none of the players against whom any wrongdoing is alleged have been restrained from participating in IPL-2014".

Srinivasan said that restrictions imposed upon him have led to "tremendous loss of goodwill" and has become a "major source of embarrassment" in the eyes of public despite his conduct as cricketing body's chief has always been "above board completely."

Srinivasan said the court order divesting him from exercising his power as BCCI president was passed without there being any material whatsoever to substantiate the allegation of betting and of spot fixing against him.

The court order was "inessential under the facts and circumstances of the case. As is evident from the fact that this... court had itself refused to form an opinion against the applicant (Srinivasan) for his removal as BCCI president while passing the order."

The application said that the court itself has noted this position in its order of May 16, 2014.

Submitting that he had no objection to probe panel further investigating into the allegations that surfaced during inquiry by Justice Mudgal Committee, Srinivasan said that a "grave prejudice" has been caused to him "upon being restrained from discharging the functions as the president of BCCI."

Srinivasan told the court that May 16 order effectively keeps him out of his office for rest of his term that also expires in September and this, in fact, amounts to granting final relief on the plea by the Cricket Association of Bihar. The court will hear the matter in September and till then Sunil Gavaskar and Shiv Lal Yadav would continue to exercise the powers of the BCCI president.

Srinivasan said that if he was not allowed to function as BCCI chief in respect of non-IPL activities, then it would cause him irreparable harm and injury.

Seeking the modification of two orders, Srinivasan said that he was bearing the brunt of the allegations of sport fixing and betting which he described "baseless" from which he would emerge "unscathed".