Historian Ramachandra Guha, appointed by the Supreme Court as one of the four administrators of BCCI, on Thursday informed the court that he had resigned from the post due to personal reasons.
A vacation Bench of Justices M M Shantanagoudar and Deepak Gupta was informed by Guha's counsel that he had tendered his resignation on May 28 to Vinod Rai, Chairman of the Committee of Administrators (COA) of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
The court said a special Bench was seized of the matter and the petition should therefore be filed in the registry.
Advocate Rakesh Sinha, who mentioned the matter before the Bench, said he had filed the petition to inform the court about Guha's decision to resign as the main matter would be coming up for hearing in July.
The Apex Court had on January 30 appointed a four-member COA headed by former Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai to run the affairs of BCCI and implement court-approved recommendations of the Justice R M Lodha panel on reforms in the cash-rich cricket body.
Vikram Limaye, Managing Director of Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC), and former Indian women cricket captain Diana Edulji were the other administrators appointed by the Supreme Court.
While naming the COA in January, the Bench, headed by Justice Dipak Misra, had rejected Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi's suggestion to appoint secretary of the Union sports ministry as one of the administrators, saying its July 18, 2016 judgement specifically debarred ministers and government servants from holding any office in BCCI. The Bench had also made it clear that the BCCI CEO would report to this COA and, with the assistance of the counsel of the Board, apprise the administrators about the implementation of the Lodha panel recommendations accepted by the apex court.
The Apex Court had on July 18, 2016 accepted the major recommendations of the Lodha panel, including a bar on ministers and civil servants and those above 70 years from becoming its members.
The COA, it is learnt, has been left stunned by Guha's submission in the Supreme Court on Thursday that he has resigned due to personal reasons.
It has been learnt that Guha didn't discuss his resignation with any of his COA colleagues although his submission to the Supreme Court states that he had intimated committee head Vinod Rai.
"No, I had no clue about his resignation as he never told me anything about it. I only came to know from media," a COA member said on Thursday.
The acclaimed historian has had little time for the COA and didn't attend half of its meetings due to his academic commitments. Add to that, he wasn't particularly happy about the speculation surrounding Kumble. Kumble's future has become a matter of conjecture after reports emerged that there has been a rift between him and India captain Virat Kohli.