The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to grant interim stay on the Bombay high court order, declaring the Board of Control for Cricket in India's two-member probe panel, that was set up to look into spot-fixing and betting charges in the sixth edition of the Indian Premier League, illegal and unconstitutional.
A bench of justices A K Patnaik and J S Khehar, however, agreed to hear the BCCI’s petition challenging the high court's judgement and issued notice on its plea.
The bench asked the Cricket Association of Bihar, on whose plea the high court had delivered its verdict, to file its response on BCCI's petition within two weeks and posted the matter for hearing on August 29.
The BCCI had on Monday sought immediate stay of the high court's order while submitting that the panel constituted was according to rules and is legal.
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In a severe blow to the BCCI and its president-in-exile N Srinivasan, the high court, on July 30, said the two-member commission was constituted in violation of the rules framed by the BCCI.
"The (probe) Commission was not duly constituted and was contrary to and in violation of the provisions of Rules 2.2 and 3 of Section 6 of the Operational Rules (of BCCI)," the high court said and also rejected Srinivisan's plea for a stay on its order to enable him move a higher court in appeal.
The high court order came just two days after the panel, comprising former judges of the Madras high court Justices T Jayarama Chouta and R Balasubramanian submitted its report on July 28 giving a clean chit to all those against whom the probe was conducted.
The panel had gone into the charges against India Cements Ltd, owners of IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings, its former Team principal Gurunath Meiyappan, son-in-law of BCCI's President-in-exile N Srinivasan and Raj Kundra, co-owner of Rajasthan Royals.
The panel was set up by the BCCI and IPL Governing Council after the spot-fixing controversy broke.
Photograph: Arko Datta/Reuters
