New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday deferred hearing till October 25 to enable the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the cricket associations to narrow down their differences on the modalities of conducting the BCCI polls.

A Bench of Justice B.P. Singh and Justice S.B. Sinha was informed by counsel for the parties that former Chief Election Commissioner T.S. Krishnamurthy had given his consent to be observer for the poll.

Senior counsel K.K. Venugopal, appearing for the BCCI, submitted that there was broad agreement among the parties on various issues. He said the Marketing Committee meeting was being held in Kolkata and hence he could not discuss the issue. Only a full member of the Board was entitled to vote in the election.

Senior counsel Harish Salve, appearing for one of the petitioners, said that at present there were differences on three to four issues but this could be narrowed down with negotiations. There was agreement over the observer being given the power to decide on disqualification but there was a difference of opinion on whether only a full member would be entitled to vote. He suggested that the question whether the full or associate member was entitled to cast a vote should be left to the observer.

The Bench was hearing a batch of Special Leave Petitions filed by the Rajasthan and Bihar Cricket Associations and the Nethaji Cricket Club questioning the High Court order quashing the appointment of the former Chief Justices, K.N. Singh and M.M. Poonchi, as special observers for the BCCI polls.

The SLPs challenging the September 23 Division Bench decision of the High Court sought restoration of the order passed by a single judge of the High Court directing the conduct of BCCI elections under the supervision of Justice Singh, Justice Poonchi and the former Supreme Court judge, S.C. Sen. They also sought a direction for setting aside the decision of BCCI president Ranbir Singh Mahendra to adjourn the AGM till November 30 and to direct the Board to convene the adjourned AGM at the earliest to elect the new office-bearers.

The Bench had on Wednesday adjourned the hearing till Thursday indicating that the modalities and other issues would be settled by then. But since there was no consensus, the Bench granted time for the parties to come out with their proposals.

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