Indian sports law update: BCCI under further scrutiny and age fraud in badminton

Will the BCCI be brought under the Right to Information Act 2005?

There is an ongoing debate in India as to whether the BCCI should be classed as a “public authority” and brought under the terms of India’s Right to Information Act 2005 (the “Act”).¹ The debate forms part of the wider concerns over the BCCI’s current "independent" governance model, which has been under further scrutiny since the IPL 6 scandal².³

The Act was enacted “to empower the citizens, promote transparency and accountability in the working of the Government, contain corruption, and make our democracy work for the people in real sense.”⁴

The Act only applies to those organisations defined as a “public authority"⁵ under Chapter 1 Part 2, namely:

“(h) ……. any authority or body or institution of self-government established or

constituted—

(a) by or under the Constitution;

(b) by any other law made by Parliament;

(c) by any other law made by State Legislature;

(d) by notification issued or order made by the appropriate Government, and includes any—

(i) body owned, controlled or substantially financed;

(ii) non-Government organisation substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government;”⁶

The government’s Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS) thinks the BCCI should be classed as a “public authority” and brought under the Act.⁷ In 2011, the previous sports minister, Ajay Maken, argued that there were “reasonable grounds” to hold this view because the BCCI indirectly receives government funds through, for example, tax exemptions.⁸ The MYAS has also argued that as the BCCI is the national federation for cricket in India, it should fall under the purview of the Draft National Sports Development Bill 2013 (“the Bill”)⁹ and therein fall under the Act, according to Chapter 9 of the Bill. ¹⁰¹¹

Wednesday, 07 December 2016