N Srinivasan: Will stay away from IPL matters until cleared by Supreme Court

N Srinivasan gives undertaking in Supreme Court to keep out of IPL matters, if elected as BCCI president till he gets clean chit 

N Srinivasan, on Wednesday, appealed to the Supreme Court of India to allow him to contest the BCCI elections. In doing so, the beleaguered President-in exile offered to stay away from all meetings pertaining to Indian Premier League (IPL), should he be re-elected.

Yesterday, India's top court had observed that Srinivasan would have to chose between his post as a BCCI administrator and an Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise owner in order to avoid a conflict of interest situation that has formed the heart of this legal procedure.

In a last-ditch effort to hold on to his position, Srinivasan also offered to stay away from the board's working committee meetings until he was cleared of all misdoings.

During Wednesday's court proceedings, BCCI is said to have opposed Supreme Court's proposal of setting up a high-power probe panel to look into the conflict of interest issue and to dispense punishment to the perpetrators. BCCI argued that by appointing a high-power committee, the board's autonomy would be affected and cited law to prove why it is necessary to preserve their autonomy. While BCCI is said to be okay with a Supreme Court-appointed panel, they want the panel to follow BCCI rules during the probe.

Lambasting BCCI for their continued non-action in the spot-fixing case, the Supreme Court pointed out that the proposed panel would in no way disturb BCCI's autonomy and would only help the board function more effectively.

India Cements, then, presented their defence of Gurunath Meiyappan after the BCCI counsel rounded up their arguments against the setting up of the proposed probe panel. Meiyappan's counsel based the crux of their argument on the fact that that their client was betting from home, in his individual capacity and not from the stadium as an official. Meiyappan, then, exercised his right to remain silent when probed about his role in the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) franchise.

India Cements also appealed to the top court against penalizing the team (CSK) for the actions of one individual. They argued that company had over 3000 employees and that they shouldn't have to be policed for one person's misdemeanors.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court directed BCCI to postpone its Annual General Meeting and elections till January 31, 2015 since the hearing into the allegations of betting and conflict of interest continue. (according to reports)

The BCCI elections were scheduled to be held on December 17 while the hearing in the litigation has now been adjourned till Monday, December 15.