BOARD OF CONTROL FOR CRICKET IN INDIAversusCRICKET ASSOCIATION OF BIHAR & ORS.

                          [2014] 6 S.C.R. 322


A         BOARD OF CONTROL FOR CRICKET IN INDIA
                               v.
           CRICKET ASSOCIATION OF BIHAR & ORS.
                (Civil Appeal No. 4235 of 2014)
                             MAY 16, 2014.
B
             [A.K. PATNAIK AND FAKKIR MOHAMED
                    IBRAHIM KALIFULLA, JJ.]

          Public interest litigation - Betting and spot-fixing in IPL,
C   2013, a/legations of - Constitution of a panel of two retired
    judges of the Madras High Court by BCCI to probe into the
    allegations, against 'GM', the alleged Team Principal of
    Chennai Super Kings and the part-time owner of IPL
    Franchise Rajasthan Royals - PIL filed by Cricket Association
D    of Bihar contending that panel not constituted in accordance
    with the Rules applicable to IPL - Direction sought against  '
    BCCI to recall the probe panel - High Court though held that
    the constitution of the probe panel not in accordance with
    Rules applicable to IPL but rejected constitution of a fresh
E   panel to inquire into the said a/legations since the constitution
    of the probe panel ~vas the prerogative of the BCCI under the
    Rules - SLPs filed by Cricket Association of Bihar and BCCI
    respectively - Constitution of Justice Mudgal Committee bf
    this Court - Directions issued to inquire into the a/legations
F   against the aforesaid persons with regard to the involvement
    in spot-fixing and betting - Submission of reports by the
     Committee - Allegations of betting and passing on
    information proved against 'GM' but allegations of spot-fixing
    to be further investigated - Allegations of betting and spot-
G   fixing against 'RK', team owner of Rajasthan Royals to be
    further investigated - Allegations against 13 personf:·
    including 'NS', President of the BCCI came to the notice o
    the Committee during the probe though not established -
    Submission of report in sealed cover - As per the Committee

H                                  322
   BOARD OF CONTROL FOR CRICKET IN INDIA v.                323
        CRICKET ASSOCIATION OF BIHAR
the said allegations has relevance to the subject-matter of PIL A
and needs to be verified and investigated - Held: Allegations
against the said 13 persons including 'NS' mentioned in the
report submitted in the sealed cover should be investigated
into by the Justice Mudgal Committee and the team of
investigators - If a new Probe Committee is entrusted to inquire B
into the allegations, there is likelihood of the allegations being
leaked to the public which would damage the reputation of the
13 persons beyond repair - Team of persons appointed by
the Court to assist Justice Mudgal Committee - Necessary
directions issued.                                                 c
     CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION :Civil Appeal No. 4235
of 2014.

    From the Judgment and Order dated 30.07.2013 in PIL
No. 55/2013 of the High Court of Bombay.                D
                               WITH
C.A. No. 4236 of 2014.
     Ajit Kumar Sinha, C. A. Sundaram, Shyam Divan, Mukul
Rohtagi, Amit Sibal, P. S. Raman, V. Prakash, Ashok Desai, E
Gopal Subramanium, Nalini Chidambaram, Rajat Sehgal,
Chandrashekhar Verma, Gagan Gupta, lmran Ahmad Abbasi,
Radha Rangaswamy, Akhila Kaushik, Rohini Musa, P. R.
Raman, S.P. Arthi, Ranjeeta Rohtagi, Rahul Mascarenhas,
Pratibha M. Singh, Tajveer Singh, Gaurav Sharma, P.B. Suresh,
Vipin Nair, Udayaditya Banerjee (for Temple Law Firm), Amal F
Chitale, Prateek, Devanshu Popat, Pragya Beghel, Sandeep
Sethi, Hari Shankar K., Aditya Verma, Anshuman Upadhyay,
T.K. Bhaskar, K. Harishankar, S. Lakshmi, Devanshi Popat,
Vikas Singh Jangra, Kirat Singh Nagra, Deep Roy, Monish
Panda, Ksitij Karjee, Anish Dayal, Siddharth Vaid, Tamali Wad, G
Anshuman Srivastava, Abhishek Tewari, Vidhushpath
Singhania, Gautam Bharadwaj for the Appearing parties.
    The Order of the Court was delivered by

    A. K. PATNAIK, J. 1. The Cricket Association of Bihar H
    324      SUPREME COURT REPORTS                [2014) 6 S.C.R.


A   filed PIL No.55 of 2013 in the Bombay High Court challenging
    the constitution of a panel of two retired judges of the Madras
    High Court by the BCCI to probe into the allegations of betting
    and spot-fixing in IPL, 2013 against Mr. Gurunath Meiyappan
    as the alleged Team Principal of Chennai Super Kings and the
B   part-time owner of IPL Franchise Rajasthan Royals contending
    that the panel was not constituted in accordance with the·
    Operational Rules applicable to IPL. The Cricket Association
    of Bihar accordingly made a prayer in 'the PIL that the BCCI be
    directed to recall its order constituting the probe panel and by
c   the impugned judgment dated 30.07.2013, the High Court held
    that the constitution of the probe panel was not in accordance
    with the Operational Rules applicable to the IPL. The High Court,
    however, declined to constitute a fresh panel to inquire into the
    aforesaid allegations and took the view in the impugned
    judgment that the constitution of the probe panel was the
    prerogative of the BCCI under the Operational Rules applicable
    to the IPL.
       2. Aggrieved by the impugned judgment of the Bombay
  High Court insofar as the High Court declined to constitute a
E fresh panel, the Cricket Association of Bihar has filed SLP (C)
  No.26633 of 2013 (now Civil Appeal No.4236 of 2014).
  Aggrieved by the impugned judgment of the High Court insofar
  as it held that the constitution of the probe panel by the BCCI
  was not in accordance with the Operational Rules applicable
F to the IPL, BCCI has filed SLP (C) No.25027 of 2013 (now Civil
  Appeal No.4235 of 2014). Both the special leave petitions were
  heard and on 08.10.2013, this Court passed an order
  constituting a Probe Committee comprising (i) Mr. Justice
  Mukul Mudgal, retired Chief Justice of Punjab & Haryana High
G Court, as Chairman, (ii) Mr. L. Nageshwar Rao, Senior Advocate
  and Additional Solicitor General, as Member and (iii) Mr. Nilay
  Dutta, Senior Advocate, Gauhati High Court, as Member. By
  the said order dated 08.10.2013, this Court directed that the
  Probe Committee will inquire only into (a) the allegations of
H betting and spot-fixing in the IPL matches against Mr. Gurunath
  BOARD OF CONTROL FOR CRICKET IN INDIA v.                325
 CRICKET ASSOCIATION OF BIHAR [AK. PATNAIK, J.]
Meiyappan, allegedly the Team Principal of Chennai Super A
Kings and the players and the allegations against the team
owner of the IPL Franchise Rajasthan Royals and (b) the
allegations against Mr. Gurunath Meiyappan and the team
owner of the IPL Franchise Rajasthan Royals with regard to their
involvement in spot- fixing and betting.                         B

      3. Pursuant to the order dated 08.10.2013, the Probe
Committee (hereinafter referred to as 'the Justice Mudgal
Committee') inquired into the allegations and submitted two
reports. In one report, the Justice Mudgal Committee concluded
that the role of Mr. Gurunath Meiyappan in Chennai Super Kings C
as the team owner as well as the allegations of betting and
passing on information against him stands proved but the
allegations of spot-fixing requires further investigation. The
Justice Mudgal Committee also observed that the allegations
of betting and spot-fixing against Shri Raj Kundra, team owner D
of Jaipur Cricket Private Limited (Rajasthan Royals), need to
be further investigated. Copies of this report were furnished to
all the parties. In the other report, the Justice Mudgal Committee
referred to allegations against 13 persons including Mr. N.
Srinivasan, the President of the BCCI, which came to the notice E
of the Committee during the probe but the Committee made it
clear that they were only allegations and were not established
and, therefore, the report was being submitted in sealed cover
so as not to sully the reputation of any innocent person.
According to the Justice Mudgal Committee, these allegations F
in the report submitted in sealed cover require verification and
investigation.

      4. We have looked into the allegations against the 13
persons including Mr. N. Srinivasan in the report submitted in G
sealed cover and we find that the allegations have relevance
to the subject-matter of PIL No.55 of 2013 and require to be
verified and investigated before the civil appeals arising out of
the impugned judgment of the High Court are finally heard and
disposed of. Accordingly, on 29.04.2014, we took the view that
                                                                H
    326      SUPREME COURT REPORTS                [2014) 6 S.C.R.


A   until a duly constituted Probe Committee investigates into the
    allegations made against the 13 persons including Mr. N.
    Srinivasan as mentioned in the report and until the Probe
    Committee submits a report, this Court cannot come to the
    findings necessary to finally decide these civil appeals. On
B   29.04.2014, we also heard learned counsel for the parties on
    what should the proper composition of the Probe Committee
    which should undertake the investigation into the allegations
    against the 13 persons including Mr. N. Srinivasan. Learned
    counsel appearing for the BCCI and Mr. N. Srinivasan
c   submitted that the BCCI has constituted a Probe Committee
    comprising Mr. Justice ·J.N. Patel, former Chief Justice of
    Calcutta High Court, Mr. R.K. Raghvan, former Director of the
    CBI, and Mr. Ravi Shastri, former player and captain of the
    Indian cricket team. On request by this Court, Mr. Gopal
    Subramanium, learned Senior counsel appearing for the
D
    Justice Mudgal Committee, sought instructions from the Justice
    Mudgal Committee an·d submitted that_the Justice Mudgal
    Committee is willing to undertake the investigation. He
    submitted a written note of the persons who can be appointed
    to assist th_e Justice Mudgal Committee in the investigation and
E
    the manner in which the investigation is to be done. On
    29.04.2014, we reserved the matters for orders on the
    composition of the Probe Committee for investigation into the
    allegations against the 13 persons including Mr. N. Srinivasan
    in the report kept in the sealed cover and other incidental
F   matters.

         5. We are of the considered opinion that the allegations
    against the 13 persons including Mr. N. Srinivasan mentioned
    in th·e report submitted in the sealed cover should be
G   investigated into by the Justice Mudgal Committee and the
    team of investigators because if a new Probe Committee is
    entrusted to inquire into the allegations, there is likelihood of
    the allegations being leaked to the public and such leakage will
    damage the rep..utation of the 13 persons beyond repair.
H
  BOARD OF CONTROL FOR CRICKET IN INDIA v.       327
 CRICKET ASSOCIATION OF BIHAR [A.K. PATNAIK, J.]
    6. In the written note submitted by Mr. Gopal Subramanium     A
appearing for the Justice Mudgal Committee, it is suggested
that the Justice Mudgal Committee be assisted in the
investigation by the foilowing persons:

      (i)    Shri M.L. Sharma, IPS (Retired);
                                                                  B
     (ii)    An officer from Mumbai Police (preferably not
             below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of
             Police);

     (iii)   An officer from Chennai Police (preferably not       c
             below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of
             Police);

     (iv)    An officer from Delhi Police (preferably not below
             the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police); and   D

     (v)     A former cricketer of repute and integrity.

     ln'"\!iew of objections made on behalf of the BCCI and Mr.
N. Srinivasan, we are of the view that instead of Shri M.L.
Sharma, IPS (Retired), Shri B.B. Mishra, IPS of the 1983 batcR    E
of Assam-Meghalaya Cadre who has a vast experience in
investigation including experience in the CBI and who is
presently working as Deputy Director General, Narcotics
Control Bureau, New Delhi, should head the investigation team.
The other officers from Mumbai Police, Chennai Police and         F
Delhi Police and a former cricketer of repute and integrity
mentioned against serial Nos. (ii) to (iv) above will be chosen
by the Justice Mudgal Committee in consultation with Shri B.B.
Mishra.

     7. We further direct that the competent authority of G
Government of India will pass appropriate orders placing the
services of Shri B.B. Mishra at the disposal of the Justice
Mudgal Committee till completion of the investigation and
submission of the report to this Court. Shri B.B. Mishra and the
other officers of the investigating team will have the powers to H
    328          SUPREME COURT REPORTS               [2014] 6 S.C.R.


A   investigate, require attendance of witnesses, the power to
    examine witnesses, the power to search and the power to seize
    and all other powers necessary for investigation except the
    power to arrest and the source of these powers of investigation
    will be this order passed by this Court. All concerned persons
B   including the BCCI, Mr. N. Srinivasan and the cricket players
    will co-operate with the investigation ill all respects. In case of
    any difficulty, the Justice Mudgal Committee may apply to this
    Court for necessary orders for the purpose of completing the
    investigation. After investigation, the report will be filed in this
c   Court by the Justice Mudgal Committee by the end of August,
    2014 in a sealed cover and the Members of the Committee and
    the investigation team will not reveal anything regarding the
    investigation to others and the media and will maintain absolute
    confidentiality.
D         8. As directed in our ei::t"rlier order dated 08.10.2013, the
    BCCI will bear all the expenses of travel, boarding and lodging
    of the Chairman and Members of the Justice Mudgal
    Committee as well as Shri B.B. Mishra and other officers of
    the investigation team. The Chairman and Members of the
E   ~ommittee will also be entitled to fees of Rupees One lakh per
    working day from the BCCI. The Central Government as well
    as the concerned State Governments will continue to pay the
    salary and oth~r allowances to be paid to Shri 8.8. Mishra and
    to all other officers of the team of investigation and the BCCI
F   will reimburse the appropriate Government accordingly. The
    cricketer who is included in the team of investigation will also
    be entitled to fees of Rupees One lakh per working day from
    the BCCI apart from expenses of travel, boarding and lodging.

G        9. The matters will be listed in first week of September,
    2014 for further hearing before the appropriate Bench. In the
    meanwhile, Mr. Sunil Gavaskar and Mr. Shivlal Yadav will
    continue to exercise the powers of the President of"the BCCI
    as per the order dated 28.03.2014 of this Court.

H   Nidhi Jain                                          Matter adjourned.