In a recommendation that will have far-reaching effects, the Law Commission has said that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) should be classified as a national sports federation and brought under the Right to Information Act (RTI).
Headed by Justice BS Chauhan, the commission asked the government to classify BCCI as “state” under Article 12 of the Constitution so that it is answerable to authorities, including the courts. The reason, according to the 124-page report, is that “BCCI exercises ‘state-like’ powers affecting the fundamental rights of the stakeholders, which are guaranteed under Part III of the Constitution .
If and when BCCI is classified as a public body or an organisation under the RTI Act, anyone can file PILs in the Supreme Court or High Courts questioning the selection of players representing India, states and zones, target the agreements signed by BCCI with other cricket playing nations and the International Cricket Council (ICC).
By not considering the role played by BCCI as ‘monopolistic in regulation of the game of cricket’, the Board has been ‘flying under the radar of public scrutiny and encouraged an environment of opacity and non-accountability’, the commission said.
The commission has submitted it’s report to the law ministry, which will take the recommendations into consideration.