Indian Express: Mumbai: Friday, January 23, 2015.
Ever since
the time all national sports federations were brought under the purview of the
Right to Information Act as per the National Sports Development Bill there has
been a raging debate as to whether the Board of Control for Cricket in India,
the world’s richest cricketing body, too should be included within its radar.
The Board
members adamantly insisted that it needn’t be as it was registered as an
autonomous body under the Societies Act, the RTI-enthusiasts demanded the
implementation of it as cricket was a public sport and the cricketers are
representing the country. In fact it was Justice Mukul Mudgal also part of the
apex-court’s probe panel that looked into the IPL spot-fixing and betting
scandal, who had voiced the need to bring the BCCI into the RTI ambit in his
capacity as the chairman of the committee that had drafted the Sports
Development Bill.
The pro-RTI
campaigners now have some hope as the SC bench on Thursday observed that though
the BCCI was a private body, it performed a public function and was therefore
amenable to judicial law and review. But noted lawyer Rahul Mehra, whose Public
Interest Litigation on bringing the Board under RTI was stayed by Chennai
Supreme Court. “The SC has just observed that the law of the land is applicable
to the BCCI, that they are accountable to the public. That doesn’t
automatically mean that it comes under the RTI. An observation is not enough to
bring the BCCI under RTI,” he said.
Without
political support, it will be difficult to make the RTI applicable to the
BCCI. “It’s not very hard. But it
requires political will and consensus. And at the moment it doesn’t seem like
happening, as the Board has influential members cutting across parties. It had
the support of UPA, and now it has the support of NDA. And when it comes to
cricket, even they seem to bury their political differences,” he explained.
A senior
board official, meanwhile, specified that the government should not try to
hijack the game’s administration by bringing it under the RTI.
“I agree that
the BCCI is accountable to the public. And we are accountable to the
public. But the government intervening
in its administration is not exactly a thing to welcome. You know that the BCCI
is the most professionally-run sports body in the country. Government’s
intervention might ruin the game,” he said.
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