CIC to decide whether BCCI is public authority or not

Swati Chaturvedi

New Delhi: The Chief Information Commissioner will meet on Tuesday to deliberate on whether BCCI is a public authority or a private autonomous body. This comes after fierce resistance from heavy weight politicians such as NCP, chief Sharad Pawar, Farooq Abdullah, Vilasrao Deshmukh who derailed the sports bill making sports bodies accountable in the Cabinet. Currently, BCCI enjoys tax-exemptions running into hundreds of crores on the cricket matches organised in the country arguing that they are promoting the sport as a charitable activity. They have also got lands for stadiums at Mohali and Chennai at throwaway prices of Re.1 The Supreme Court has also held that the BCCI officials are public servants which will clearly be a cue to the CIC. BCCI, which is one of the richest sports bodies in the world, has refused to play alongwith either the Union Ministry of Sports or several RTI petitions maintaining it is a private body even though it continues to receive heavy aid from successive governments and maintains a stranglehold on cricket in India.