The Supreme Court stated that the argument raised by N Srinivasan cannot be admitted. He submitted before the Court that it is not wrong in owning an IPL team and acting as the BCCI President. The Court expressed its opinion while putting some questions to him regarding the IPL spot fixing. The bench consisted of Justice S Thakur and F M Kalifullah who told that the conflict of interest is similar to that of bias and here the probability of bias is clear. The transparency of cricket should be upheld and the people who are working under it should be free from distrust. When all the positions are taken into consideration, it is difficult to accept the statement that there is no conflict of interest, the Court added.
For Srinivasan, eminent lawyer Kapil Sibal appeared before the Court. The advocate also submitted that conflict of interest can be seen in every sports association like Hockey Federation and FIFA that permits such activities. But the Court was of the opinion that actions should be taken according to the Mudgal report by the Board that will be formed subsequent to election. The hon’ble Apex Court also said that the Court will not say that Srinivasan had obtained franchise by fraud. But when he becomes the owner of a team and at the same time becomes administrator of cricket, it will definitely drag the person to opposite directions. A person cannot become the contractor and the head of contracting party at the same time. The matter is to be over-viewed from the angle of people who take cricket as passion, the court opined.
At the time of hearing, the Court had directed Srinivsan to relinquish either the post held under BCCI or the ownership of CSK team. It also asked for the information regarding the ownership of India Cements. The Court also permitted to continue with the elections but excluded some of the board members from contesting in elections as they were under investigation. It was in October that the Supreme Court formed Justice Mukul Mudgal Committee to inspect the IPL spot fixing case. The Committee submitted the first report on 10th February.