SC drops contempt proceedings against ex-BCCI chief Anurag Thakur

On Friday, the Supreme Court of India accepted the qualified apology from Anurag Thakur, the former President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Consequently, it has also dropped the contempt proceedings against Thakur for filing a false affidavit.

The “regrets” of Thakur, who was present in the court in pursuance to the previous order of the court, were also accepted by the bench of Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud. It was the amicus curiae Gopal Subramanian who had levelled perjury charges against Thakur. The apex court observed that the former BCCI president had committed matter of perjury in relation to demanding an intervention via a letter from the International Cricket Council (ICC), on December 15.

On January 2, the court had issued a notice to Thakur asking him to explain why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him. Following this, on July 7, it had directed Thakur to file an unconditional and unequivocal apology.

In response, Thakur had tendered an “unconditional” and “unequivocal” apology claiming that he never intended to undermine the majesty of the apex court.

On Friday, Gopal Subramaniam told the bench that the benefit of the doubt should go to Thakur because he had expressed an unconditional apology. Subramaniam’s submission that “the whole episode can be closed as regards the contemnor because of the affidavit filed” and that there was some kind of misinformation or miscommunication, was recorded as well.

Srinivasan and Niranjan Shah asked how they became representatives of cricketing associations

Meanwhile, N Srinivasan and Niranjan Shah were also asked by the court how they could become representatives of cricketing associations as they were already disqualified from being office-bearers as per the Lodha recommendations. On September 5, 2017, the SC will conduct a hearing in the matter where the two, as well as some associations (barring them from being permanent members of the BCCI), will present their petitions.