Mumbai: Justice Ananga Kumar Patnaik's retirement on June 2 this year, just a day before his 66th birthday, will bring music to the ears of some of the BCCI officials who are die-hard supporters of N. Srinivasan.
The senior Supreme Court judge is hearing the IPL probe case along with Justice Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla.
No extension:
Now that Mr Patnaik's retiring, it is unclear whether the on-going probe is likely to have a new judge to partner Mr Kalifulla or he (Mr Kalifulla) will be the lone judge on the panel. Should the probe panel have a new incumbent, Mr Kalifulla will be the "senior" judge, a position earlier held by Mr Patnaik.
The Indian constitution doesn't allow any extension to a retiring judge. Elaborating further, Mukul Mudgal, the chairman of the last probe committee, stated exclusively, "No, he (Justice Patnaik) can't get an extension and hence the case will be heard by some other judge /s."
"I can not say the composition of the next bench," he added.
Mudgal mum on BCCI's protest:
Mukul Mudgal refused to comment on the likely reasons for the BCCI's protest against his continuation in the IPL probe panel notwithstanding the fact that he has himself asked for the BCCI's consent rather than waiting for the Apex court's order for his direct appointment.
However, sources close to the panel believe that the BCCI's lawyers have an ace up their sleeve and therefore they have protested against Mudgal's men.
"Some strategy plan which may have been drawn by BCCI's (read Srinivasan's) lawyers may not be known to the clients.
"Generally, at this stage the lawyers decide the strategy. They only collect the factual data from clients," the source, well conversant with the procedure, said.
It will be an interesting tussle between the teams of two lawyers-Chetpet Aryama Sundaram (BCCI) and Harish Salve (Aditya Verma)- where no one would want to lose the highly prestigious battle.
