BCCI comes under RTI Act, will be answerable to common people

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will now be answerable to the people of the country as the Central Information Commission (CIC) on Monday ruled that the governing body of cricket will be covered under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

The CIC, which is the foremost appellate body in RTI related matters, said that the functional characteristics of the BCCI fulfilled the required conditions of Section 2(h) of the RTI Act.

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In his 37-page order, Information Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu said, “The SC has also reaffirmed that the BCCI is the ‘approved’ national-level body holding virtually monopoly rights to organize cricketing events in the country.”

The BCCI president, secretary and Committee of Administrators were also asked to appoint central public information officers, central assistant public information officers and first appellate authorities to deal with the public queries under the RTI Act.

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“The BCCI should be listed as an NSF covered under the RTI Act. The RTI Act should be made applicable to the BCCI along with its entire constituent member cricketing associations, provided they fulfil the criteria applicable to the BCCI, as discussed in the Law Commission’s report,” Acharyulu said.

The BCCI has been given 15 days time to set up online and offline mechanisms to receive applications seeking information under the Act.