Supreme Court appoints Justice DK Jain as the BCCI ombudsman

New Delhi, February 21: The Supreme Court on Thursday (February 21) named its former judge, Justice D K Jain, as the first court-appointed ombudsman for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). A bench comprising Justices SA Bobde and AM Sapre said: "We are happy that by consent of the parties and the suggestions, the name of retired Justice D K Jain has been agreed to be appointed as the ombudsman in the BCCI.

"We accordingly appoint Justice (retired) D K Jain as first ombudsman in the BCCI." Justice Jain emerged as the first choice among the six former apex court judges whose names were placed before a bench in an envelope.

When the bench said that Justice Jain is a good name in the list, all the advocates appearing for various parties accepted the suggestion. The names of probable ombudsmen were provided to the bench by PS Narsimha, who is assisting the court as an amicus curaie.

The bench was told the role of the ombudsman would be to resolve the disputes relating to the players within the state cricket associations as also financial issues. The apex court in its August 9, 2018 judgement had recommended the appointment of ombudsman.

During the hearing Narsimha told the bench that had there been an ombudsman, the recent controversy involving two players Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul would have been resolved on urgent and priority basis.

The Supreme Court also rapped CoA members Vinod Rai and Diana Edulji for making the differences between them over certain issues public. "We have heard in newspaper reports that some sparring is going on between the CoA members...tell them not to go public with their differences," the SC noted.