Apex court ex-judge DK Jain is new BCCI ombudsman

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The Supreme Court on Thursday appointed a former Supreme Court judge as the ombudsman to deal with disputes arising between cricket associations and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The appointment of Justice (Retd) DK Jain as ombudsman was the first major decision taken by the present bench which began hearing the matters last year.

The court inducted a former Army officer Lt. Gen. Ravindra Thodge into the Committee of Administrators (CoA) to run BCCI. The CoA currently is headed by former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai and has a former Indian Indian test cricketer Diana Edulji as member.

The SC felt the necessity of appointing Thodge after it expressed its disgruntlement over the two-member CoA going public with their differences.

The bench of Justices SA Bobde and AM Sapre asked both Rai and Edulji to stop this “public sparring” and requested both members to maintain restraint. The CoA initially had four members with the exit of Ramachandra Guha and Vikram Limaye, decisions could no more be taken by a majority vote.

As per the newly adopted Constitution of the BCCI, this is the first Ombudsman for the cricket body whose functions have been defined under Article 40 of Chapter IX of the Constitution document. The Lodha Committee had recommended for an Ombudsman, an Ethics Officer and an Electoral Officer to provide institutional resolution of disputes, adherence to transparency and avoidance of conflict of interest.