Subramanian Swamy moves SC for urgent hearing on plea against ban on CSK

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy today moved the Supreme Court seeking urgent hearing on his application challenging the two-year ban imposed on the IPL franchisee, Chennai Super Kings (CSK), over the 2013 betting scam involving its top official Gurunath Meiyappan.

Swamy told a bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur that the matter was listed for July 26 but it was not taken up due to hearing of entry tax matter by a nine-judge Constitution bench.

The bench, also comprising justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, asked Swamy to mention the matter next week after which it will be listed.

Earlier, in his plea before the Supreme Court, Swamy had also sought a CBI probe into the petition filed before it by Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB).

Swamy had alleged that his earlier plea was wrongly rejected by the Madras High Court on the issue.

The high court on January 20 had dismissed Swamy’s PIL challenging the suspension of CSK and Rajasthan Royals, saying it was not maintainable.

Star-studded CSK, then led by M S Dhoni, and Rajasthan Royals were on July 14, last year suspended for two years from the Indian Premier League in a clean-up exercise following the 2013 betting scam involving their top officials Meiyappan and Raj Kundra.

Meiyappan, son-in-law of the then BCCI chief N Srinivasan and a former Team Principal of CSK, and Kundra, co-owner of Jaipur IPL that runs Rajasthan Royals (RR), were suspended for life from any match conducted by BCCI.

The punishments were handed down by a three-member panel headed by former CJI R M Lodha which was asked by the Supreme Court to decide the quantum of punishment after finding them guilty of betting.

The Madras High Cout had also dismissed a similar petition by the owner of CSK challenging Justice Lodha panel’s order.