Supreme Court agrees to examine Anurag Thakur plea

Anurag Thakur, the BJP leader, had filed an application to recall the Supreme Court order of January 2, 2017, stripping him of his position as BCCI president.

Anurag Thakur ceased to be the BCCI president after the Supreme Court verdict of January 2, 2017.

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to examine a plea by BJP leader Anurag Thakur for a recall of its order of January 2, 2017, stripping him of his position as Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president and to “forthwith cease and desist” from associating with Indian cricket’s most powerful body.

A Bench of Justices S. A. Bobde and A. M. Sapre issued notice on the application filed by Thakur.

A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice T. S. Thakur and Justices A. M. Khanwilkar and D. Y. Chandrachud had in 2017 declared Mr. Thakur and then BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke “unfit” to continue at the helm of the BCCI for their “obstructionist” attitude and specious pleas about their incapacity to make affiliated State associations fall in line with the Justice Lodha reforms.

‘Mental anguish’

In his application, Mr. Thakur said he has been associated with cricket and the BCCI since the year 2000, and the January 2 order of the Supreme Court has caused him “immense mental anguish and public embarrassment.”

Thakur said he was not legally represented in the Supreme Court either as BCCI president or in his personal capacity. This “fact” was intimated to the court by the BCCI counsel on December 15, 2016, the very day which the court reserved the case for judgement. However, “The applicant (Thakur) was furnished with the order of January 2, 2017, by the BCCI once the same was pronounced by this Honourable Court.”

Anurag Thakur said the verdict had caused him caused him “immense mental anguish and public embarrassment.” Photo: AFP

 

He submitted that remarks made by the court in the January 2 order against him were a matter of “public discussion and debate which has affected his public image.” They have also been a cause of anguish for his family.

“This court did not put the applicant to notice of the factum of any hearing about his conduct. The applicant was unrepresented before this court and was not at all aware of any hearing, debate or discussion about his conduct before this court,” Thakur submitted.

He said the order has imposed on him “adverse civil consequences” without hearing him. It had ordered him to “cease and desist from acting as the president of the BCCI, which is an extremely prestigious elected post.”