Madras High Court to take up CSK’s appeal against Lodha committee order on August 27

Madras High Court to take up CSK’s appeal against Lodha committee order on August 27: BCCI was sent a notice by the Madras High Court on Chennai Super King’s petition challenging the order of Justice Lodha Committee of suspending the team from Indian Premier League over the betting scandal of 2013, involving the name of CSK’s top official Gurunath Meiyappan.

A division bench, consisting Chief Justice Sanjay Krishna Kaul and Justice TS Sivagnanam, also allowed Cricket Association of Bihar, on whose plea the Supreme Court had given a verdict on the IPL betting and spot-fixing scandal, to prosecute the case.

In its petition, the owner of the Chennai Super Kings, Indian Cements Ltd, also had a say on the committee’s verdict last month. It resisted that the committee’s order was against the fundamental principles of natural justice and a fair hearing.

Following the 2013 IPL betting scam Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals were suspended for two years from the Indian Premier League on 14^th of July. The controversy included names of two top officials from both the Teams, Meiyappa from the Dhoni-led CSK and Raj Kundra from RR.

Meiyappa the son-in-law of the then BCCI chief, N Srinivasan and Raj Kundra the co-owner of Jaipur IPL that runs Rajasthan Royals have been punished with a lifetime ban from any match that is conducted by the BCCI.

The judgment panel for the IPL betting scam was headed by former CJI RM Lodha, which was given the responsibility by the Supreme Court to decide on the decree of punishment after they are found guilty.

The India Cements in its petition mentioned that the punishment imposed by the Lodha Committee on the franchise (CSK) was given without going into the charges. It said that the committee has given a verdict without going into the argument of whether India Cements was guilty of violating the clause 4.1.1 of IPL operation rules that has led to “grave miscarriage of Justice.”

The petition on reference to Supreme Court’s order in January last stated “Gurunath Meiyappan had been (found) guilty of betting but not spot fixing, match fixing or misuse of inside information…Meiyappaan never had shares in India Cements nor was he is in the management of the company.”

The case has been adjourned till August 27.