RM Lodha
The Supreme Court will hear on 29 August a plea contending that the top court appointed oversight committee headed by former Chief Justice RM Lodha was going beyond its mandate of monitoring the work of Medical Council of India (MCI).
On 17 August, before it broke for a long weekend of four days, a three-judge Supreme Court (SC) bench of justices Ranjan Gogoi, Prafulla Chandra Pant and AM Khanwilkar referred a challenge to its immunity from the Right to Information (RTI) Act to a five-judge constitution bench. The decision, made after a brief hearing, was a surprise as well as a disappointment.
A five-judge Constitution bench will decide whether the Supreme Court is exempted from disclosing information including file noting and correspondence on the appointment of judges to higher judiciary and other information under the Right to Information Act (RTI).
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Tuesday appointed former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju as the head of a legal panel to guide the board in understanding the recommendations of the Justice RM Lodha Committee which have been approved by the apex court.
Even as the Supreme Court is yet to upload its order referring the curative petitions filed by Naz Foundation and others to the five Judge Constitution bench, a debate has already begun over the scope and composition of the bench among observers.
Two very important cases related to the power to appoint teachers and rules on when special leave petitions (SLPs) should be entertained, are scheduled to be heard by two Supreme Court’s constitution benches today under CJI TS Thakur’s new constitution bench schedules.
Justice RM Lodha Committee appointed by the Supreme Court of India to look into the functionality of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) submitted it’s report today recommending legalisation of betting, among other reforms according to The Hindu.
The committee recommended multiple reforms in order to regularize the sport in India. Lodha was quoted as commenting in a press conference, “our year-long effort was to remove the ailing parts, revitalise the body so that it could run a marathon for the betterment of the game. Our job was to restore the pristine glory of the game of which 1.28 billion of the country is passionate for.”
Observing that betting is a multi million dollar industry all over the world, the committee recommended the government to enact laws to regularise it, including disallowing players, team and match officials and cricket administrators to participate in betting. It also asked the government to restrict the betting to licensed betting houses and take steps to ensure that players or officials do not participate in the same.
The committee also rooted for a nine-member apex council to replace the existing 14 member BCCI working committee and asked that five of the nine office-bearers should not be either government servant or minister and no office bearer to hold position for two consecutive years.
To ensure equitable voting pattern, the committee suggested ‘one state one vote scheme’ wherein cricket associations representing states would have one vote each.
The committee also recommended position of CEO to be introduced under which the person would take responsibility of day to day non-cricket working of the BCCI
The committee floated the idea of ‘cricket player’s association’ to be funded and managed by the BCCI under which all agents shall be registered.
Apart from these, the recommendations included introduction of ‘ethics officer’ who would be a retired high court judge, an ‘ombudsman’ who would be a retired Supreme Court judge as well as an ‘electoral officer’ to be nominated two weeks prior to elections.
In another report, the committee gave a clean chit to former IPL COO Sundar Raman on allegations of his involvement in the 2013 IPL betting and said that his omission to inform the officials of betting activities didn’t seem to be motivated with any personal interest, the news reported.
As the Chief Justice of India (CJI) HL Dattu retires on 2 December, the Government is apparently preparing red carpet for him at the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) according to several reports, as the post of the chairperson of the NHRC has been vacant since May this year, and only former CJIs are eligible for this high office.
Chief justice of India HL Dattu has withdrawn the practice of his predecessor RM Lodha, who had asked high courts to consult non-collegium judges before sending their judge-recommendations to the Supreme Court, reported the Economic Times.
The high court collegium, which consists of the chief justice of a given high court along with his two senior most colleagues send their nominations for judgeships to the Supreme Court collegium. Former CJI Lodha had asked the high court collegiums to also consult two judges outside the collegium, before forwarding the final list of names for elevation to the SC.
CJI Dattu has withdrawn this request, after the high court cited “difficulties” in following the practice.
A Chief Justice of India for 153 days is unlikely to leave a legacy behind. Somehow, this one did, explains Court Witness.