Only last week the Central Information Commission (CIC) ruled that the BCCI should be brought under the Right to Information (RTI) so that the body would be answerable to the people of the country for its mechanism. Now, COA Head Vinod Rai in an interview with one of the news agencies said that the BCCI should not be brought under the act as it is not a government body and has knocked the door of the Madras High Court regarding the same issue. CIC's RTI Plea Can't Be Implemented: BCCI Chief.

“We have been expressly precipitated that BCCI is not a government body. Thus, it should not be covered under RTI. We have already approached the Madras High Court regarding the issue in May. We have specifically told in our response that the CIC plea cannot be implemented as the matter is subjudice,” said Vinod Rai to the news agency. The commission had further directed the BCCI to put online and offline mechanisms in place within 15 days to receive the applications for information under the RTI act. However, the office bearers at the BCCI have accused the COA of willful negligence in dealing with the matter.

On the condition of anonymity, an official from the BCCI official said that it was on July 10th that the CIC asked the reason for the board not coming under RTI. To which, the BCCI did not even file a reply and sat a show-cause notice. “Now the only way is to challenge the order in High Court and take it from there on,” explained the official.

The talks about BCCI being under the RTI act came into limelight when an RTI applicant Geeta Rani sought information from the Board about the selection of players for the Indian team. The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports could not give her a satisfactory answer post which the issue landed at the doors of CIC the appellant body in RTI matters. Post this, the CIC directed that the BCCI should give a satisfactory answer to Geeta Rani’s questions within 10 days.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 04, 2018 05:37 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).