Muristek
Vinayak Padmadeo
New Delhi, March 23
In an embarrassing turn of events, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Narinder Batra had to tender an apology after a past social media outburst against former Chief Justice of Supreme Court RM Lodha caught up with him.
Batra had vented his emotions over the Lodha Committee recommendations, which sought a big change in cricket's administration — including bringing in age and tenure restrictions in the BCCI — following the spot-fixing scandal that rocked the IPL. Batra's social media outburst was placed on the record by lawyer-activist Rahul Mehra in the petition against the IOA in the Delhi High Court. "It was an attempt to show how these people don't take reforms seriously," Mehra told The Tribune.
Batra, who was unavailable for comments, tendered a full apology, saying his posts were both inexcusable and a grave error. "hellip;I would like to state that the words written by me in the said post were made in haste and are inexcusable. The contents therein do not reflect my true beliefs with regard to the Hon'ble Courts and the judiciary. I hold the majesty of the Hon'ble Courts in the highest regard. As soon as the said post was uploaded, within the same hour it was deleted, because I realized my grave error," Batra said in his written apology to the court.
"There is no excuse for the words I have used in the said post. I am extremely embarrassed that I had made such remarks, and never should have made them in the first place. I seek the forgiveness of the Hon'ble Court for my grave error," he added.
The offending posts
In his post from 2015, Narinder Batra had alleged that a few of Justice Lodha's suggestions were absurd and stupid, and had also questioned his integrity.
Batra had posted: "Well done Retd justice Lodha. You have ruined cricket in India. Now some idiots in India who are frustrated individuals, are out to ruin other sports also, who want other bodies also ruined like crickethellip; you gave few good advices on good governance principles, but also few of your suggestions were absurd and pure stupid. Hope sanity prevails in the minds of political establishment of India and they come with a sports law, passed by parliament, keeping in my Olympic movement and principles of autonomy."
"I am informed Justice Lodha took Rs 5.00 crores from BCCI in one year. As chief justice of India his salary was Rs 2.50 lakh and after retirement the pension is 50 percent of salary i.e. Rs 1.25 lakh per month. Thus if the above figure is correct, then justice Lodha got 400 months of salary or 33.33 years of salary in one year from BCCI plus his pension. Is this not indirect form of corruption? Are retired judges' only honest people in India? Are all others corrupt?" he had added.