Azharuddin to challenge BCCI in court after all

Onkar Singh

Former Union Minister of Law and Justice H R Bhardwaj on Thursday confirmed that former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin is planning to move the court, challenging the ban slapped on him by the BCCI.

Speaking to rediff.com about the delay in filing the case, Bhardwaj said, "I have already approved the draft and it is now upto Ganeshan, the lawyer who is actually handling the case, to decide when to file the case."

"I understand that as part of our case, some information is being collected against BCCI president Dr A C Muthiah, who is himself involved in a number of corruption cases," he said.

When his attention was drawn to the statement made by Dr Muthiah that the BCCI, being a private body, cannot be sued by Azhar, Bhardwaj said that saying something does not necessarily make it right.

"After all, employee-employer cases do go to courts. If courts started accepting Muthaih's argument, then there would be no case against employers. In this case, the BCCI is Azhar's employer. They have to prove the allegations that they have levelled against Azhar in a court of law before banning him for life," Bhardwaj claimed.

Meanwhile, developments in Australian cricket centering around Mark Waugh have the CBI in Delhi very interested.

"We are keeping a close watch on the developments in Australia. We have given information to Sir Paul Condon and his team, and now it is for them to get explanation from Mark Waugh. We on our part are waiting for some player to go to court, so that we can show the courts what we have not written in our report," a senior official of the agency involved in the investigation of the match fixing scandal told rediff.com.

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