Offer unconditional apology, Supreme Court asks Anurag Thakur

What’s the story?

Former BCCI chief Anurag Thakur has courted controversy as the Supreme Court of India has asked him to tender an apology for making ‘derogatory’ comments against the court.

Thakur has incidentally spoken out against the Apex court when he said that the guidelines issued by them was on the same lines as a government interference.

The bench comprising Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud also asked the HPCA head to be present for the next hearing.

"You file a one-page affidavit and unconditional apology. He should be here. Actually, the language must be unconditional," the bench observed.

The Details

The court issued these guidelines to senior counsel P.S. Patwalia who was appearing for Anurag Thakur.

Patwalia agreed to the terms since he sensed the tonality of the statements and did not want to take too many liberties with the bench in such a miffed mood.

However, the counsel argued that he had not anything which breached the law since he had only asked the ICC president Shashank Manohar to clarify that the presence of a CAG nominee on the BCCI as it would translate into government interference.

Apparently, this observation was made by Manohar himself when he was the president of the BCCI.

In case you didn’t know...

Back in January 2017, the Supreme Court had axed Anurag Thakur and BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke from their posts as a part of a proposal by the Lodha Committee.

The court was not too pleased with the approach of both Thakur and Shirke since they had not informed them about asking the ICC for a letter which would state that the presence of a CAG on the board would amount to government interference.

What's next?

Although the counsel has assured the court about the presence of Anurag Thakur, it remains to be seen whether or not he issues an unconditional apology.

Ever since he has stepped away from the job, Thakur has generally not spoken much about his tenure with the BCCI and has also not given his version of the sequence of events.

Author's Take

Ever since the Supreme Court has decided to take matters into its own hand as far as the BCCI is concerned, there have been repercussions felt all over the place within the Indian board.

Currently, the BCCI has appointed a panel to study the different findings which were not implemented by the Indian board and these recent diktats issued could well act as the catalyst for the under-fire Indian board.