Azharuddin's case posted to April 16

Syed Amin Jafri

The second Additional Chief Judge, City Civil Court, Hyderabad, posted the original suit and interim application filed by former India cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin against the Board of Control for Cricket in India, its chairman A C Muthiah and vigilance commissioner K Madhavan to April 16 for further hearing.

When the matter came up in the court on Tuesday, Judge J Shyamsunder Rao posted the cases for hearing to April 16 after the respondents filed their counter-affidavits with regard to the application filed by Azharuddin, seeking production of documents pertaining to the appointment of former CBI joint director Madhavan as BCCI Vigilance Commissioner.

In their counters, the defendants once again justified the imposition of the life ban on the former India skipper for his alleged involvement in the match-fixing scandal.

Now that all the affidavits/counter-affidavits from both the sides have been filed, the arguments in the original suit and interim application are likely to commence from the next hearing.

The main suit was filed by Azharuddin, challenging the life ban imposed on him by the BCCI for his alleged role in match-fixing, in January this year. He made several charges against the BCCI, Muthiah and Madhavan and contended that the BCCI probe into match-fixing was not conducted in a transparent way. He had also contended that the appointment of Madhavan as BCCI commissioner was illegal and arbitrary and that the inquiry itself was not fair and independent and it was biased and in favour of the BCCI.