Court order on IPL scandal likely on Thursday

India's Supreme Court is expected to pass an order on the 2013 IPL corruption case on Thursday, after 17 months of hearings and investigations in relation to the role of BCCI and IPL administrators in the matter. The reference to the role of officials was the result of the findings of a Supreme Court appointed committee, which was given greater investigative powers to look into the scandal that broke out with the arrests of key players, bookies and IPL team officials in May 2013. The justice Mukul Mudgal committee handed over two reports to the court - one featuring findings on players and the other on the officials, which has been tackled first by the court.

The two-judge bench of Justice TS Thakur and Justice FM Kalifullah had reserved its order after the end of hearings on December 17. Earlier, the court had raised questions about BCCI president N Srinivasan's "conflict of interest", with reference to his dual role as BCCI head and owner of the Chennai Super Kings franchise, and suspended him from performing his duties as BCCI chief while the case was ongoing. It also questioned the BCCI's decision to amend its constitution to allow an official to have a commercial interest in the IPL and the Champions League T20. The case has led to the BCCI postponing its annual general meeting and elections twice.

This specific case dates back to June 2013 when Aditya Verma, secretary of the Cricket Association of Bihar, raised charges of a conflict of interest in the BCCI's original two-member inquiry panel named to look into the IPL corruption issue. A Bombay High Court ruling later termed the probe panel "illegal". The BCCI and the CAB filed petitions in the Supreme Court around this order, in which the BCCI questioned the ruling and the CAB contending that the Bombay High Court could have suggested a fresh mechanism to look into the corruption allegations. The case was admitted into the Supreme Court in August 2013.

The Supreme Court then appointed a three-member committee, headed by former High Court chief justice Mukul Mudgal and comprising additional solicitor general L Nageswara Rao and Nilay Dutta to conduct an independent inquiry into the allegations of corruption against Meiyappan, India Cements, and Rajasthan Royals team owner Jaipur IPL Cricket Private Ltd, as well as with the larger mandate of allegations around betting and spot-fixing in IPL matches and the involvement of players.