Going ahead with its plans, the special general body meeting of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Sunday unanimously appointed Jagmohan Dalmiya as its Patron-in-Chief from next month after eliciting legal opinion on yesterday's order of a Bhopal Court.
Earlier there were doubts on whether the requisitioned meeting could be held in view of the interim order by the Bhopal Court on a petition challenging the move to appoint Dalmiya as Patron-in-Chief.
However, the decks were cleared after the four legal luminaries -- Arun Jaitley, Sudhir Nanavati, Shashank Manohar and Ranbir Singh Mahendra -- held a 20-minute discussion to analyse yesterday's court order, which had asked the BCCI to refrain from taking any decision contrary to its rules. The Bhopal Court is due to hear the petition again on Monday.
According to BCCI sources, Dalmiya was appointed to the new post with effect from October 1, but no powers were delegated to him at today's meeting.
Dalmiya is due to step down as BCCI President on September 29.
"His role as Patron-in-Chief and his powers would be decided at the AGM of the Board in Kolkata on September 29-30," sources said.
Before the meeting started, different views were expressed by the board members as there was some discrepancy in the original court order which was in Hindi and the translated English version.
One of the 30 members said during the meeting later, "we cannot straightaway decide in favour of the requisitions by the affiliated units".
As advised by the concerned member, the meeting later asked the legal experts to analyse the whole issue and submit their recommendations.
Thereafter, upon the recommendations of the legal experts, the meeting decided to appoint Dalmiya and deferred the role of Patron-in-Chief, besides other matters to the AGM.
