Fresh trouble may be brewing for N Srinivasan as the Supreme Court on Monday held it inappropriate on his part to function as the BCCI chief although the court had found him guilty of having “conflict of interest” in the IPL corruption case.

A bench of Justices T S Thakur and FMI Kalifulla took strong objection to Srinivasan presiding over a meeting of the BCCI working committee on February 8 as the cricket board chief, and said his position had become “very vulnerable” after the court’s judgement indicted him of being in the conflict of interest situation.

“This court held in its order that there was a clear conflict of interest in his case. Having said that, this makes him very vulnerable. He should not have participated in the meeting. We should not be seen running around him. The spirit of our judgment is that he was found in conflict of interest. We are not happy with this,” said the bench.

It maintained that the essence of the judgement was clear that somebody who was not eligible to run for a BCCI post could not have been at the helm of affairs controlling that organisation.

“There is a judgement that stands in the way. How could he ignore what we said in our judgement? If he (Srinivasan) is not eligible to contest election as a candidate, how can he hold office as its president even for a day?” the bench questioned Srinivasan’s counsel Kapil Sibal.

The court was hearing a plea by the Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB) to initiate contempt of court proceedings against Srinivasan for presiding over the meeting in alleged defiance of the judgement of January 22.

It also sought action against BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel, its treasurer Aniruddh Chaudhary and the cricketing body’s interim chief Shivlal Yadav for letting Srinivasan attend the meeting. The CAB’s counsel read out the judgement directing Srinivasan and all others who had commercial interests in the IPL to stay away from administration of BCCI.

‘No willful disobedience’

Defending Srinivasan. Sibal said that there was no willful disobedience and that he understood the order as restraining him only in the future. “We thought the prohibition was only till the investigation had to get over and it is over now. Further, he has not issued any orders or taken decision in that meeting. The meeting has only fixed March 2 as the date for the election of new office-bearers,” he said.

The bench retorted: “Just tell us one thing. If you are not eligible to contest, can you preside over the BCCI as chairperson? You were found to be in the conflict of interest situation. We don’t think his status has improved after our judgement. You should not have done it. You should have understood the spirit of our judgement.”

The court then said it was willing to issue notices on the contempt plea and Srinivasan could explain everything in his reply. Sibal, however, succeeded in convincing the bench to wait till Friday, the next date of hearing, and said he would revert after getting instructions from Srinivasan.

While agreeing to postpone the hearing, the bench said: “We don’t want this to become a slanging match between parties. It should not become acrimonious. Let us see what happens on Friday.”