BCCI, 'a limb of the State', should come under RTI ambit: Law Commission

It states that BCCI ought to be classified as state' within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) should be brought under the ambit of the RTI Act, the Law Commission said on Wednesday noting that it falls under the definition of a public authority which has received substantial financing from governments.

It also said non-consideration of the role played by the BCCI as "monopolistic" in regulation of the game of cricket has resulted in the board "flying under the radar of public scrutiny, encouraged an environment of opacity and non-accountability".

In July 2016, the Supreme Court had asked the commission to recommend whether the cricket board can be brought under the Right to Information Act.

There have been demands to bring the cash-rich cricket body under RTI to usher in transparency.

The report, submitted to the Law Ministry on Wednesday, states that BCCI ought to be classified as 'state' within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution.

"An analysis of the functioning of BCCI also shows that the government does exercise control over its activities and functioning.

"... BCCI, falling in line with the foreign policy of India, did not recognise a player from South Africa due to their practice of apartheid; and that the cricket matches between India and Pakistan in view of tense international relations were made subject to government approval. The foregoing positions BCCI as a limb of the state'," the law panel report said.

It said though the BCCI is continued to be regarded as a "private body", owing to its "monopolistic character coupled with the public nature of its functions, it can still be termed as a 'public authority' and be brought within the purview of the RTI Act.

The report pointed out that BCCI has received "substantial financing" from appropriate governments in the form of tax exemptions and land grants.

The BCCI has enjoyed tax exemptions of "thousands of crores", the report said. "To be precise, between 1997-2007, the total tax exemption amounted to Rs twenty-one billion six hundred eighty-three million two hundred thirty-seven thousand four hundred eighty-nine. It may also be noted here that from 2007-2008 onwards, the registration of BCCI under section 12A of the Income Tax Act, 1961, as a charitable trust, was withdrawn," it noted.

The BCCI, it said, exercises state-like' powers affecting the fundamental rights of the stakeholders, guaranteed (in) the Constitution. It is hereby recommended that the BCCI be viewed as an agency or instrumentality of state, under Article 12 of the Constitution, thereby making it amenable to the writ jurisdiction of the Supreme Court under Article 32," the report said.

Nokia 7 Plus review: An all-rounder with great battery and modern design

The Nokia 7 plus smartphone, with 6.00-inch full HD+ display, lets you have the big screen experience. Discover more about Nokia 7 plus specifications, features and prices in India here in this review

A year ago, Nokia made a comeback in the phone market by launching a wide range of smartphones and feature phones across multiple price points, primarily focusing on value-for-money devices.

This year, HMD Global, the Finnish company behind the Nokia brand, has added three new phones to the list -- Nokia 6 (2018), Nokia 7 Plus and the Nokia 8 Sirocco. The Nokia 6 (2018), being an incremental update of the original Nokia 6, is touted as a budget smartphone. However, the Nokia 7 Plus and Nokia 8 Sirocco get serious upgrades over their original iterations and, therefore, have been touted as mid-range and premium flagships, respectively.

Talking about the Nokia 7 Plus, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 system-on-chip (SoC) powered smartphon does not try to surpass its mid-range standing and get in the Nokia 8 Sirocco’s way. Yet, in many ways, the Nokia 7 Plus has a feel of a premium flagship smartphone.

The phone sports an aluminium-glass design with copper-tainted frame, which looks elegant and improves the phone’s overall design language. The ceramic coating on the back looks smooth yet comfortable to hold without hampering the grip.

Unlike the Nokia 8 Sirocco, however, the Nokia 7 Plus features a 3.5mm headphone jack, and you get in-ear headphones in the box too. The dual-SIM smartphone relies on a hybrid SIM tray design, which allows either dual SIM operations or a SIM with microSD card. The phone supports 4G and VoLTE on the primary SIM, while the second SIM is restricted to 3G and 2G networks.

The Nokia 7 Plus sports a modern ultra-wide screen, a first for Nokia smartphones. Though the 6-inch fullHD+ 18:9 aspect ratio panel is of LCD variety, rather than the vivid OLEDs, it is still the brightest and the most colourful.

The screen looks vibrant and colourful, but it faces issue under direct sunlight due to limited maximum brightness levels. Apart from sunlight legibility, there seems to be no other issues with it. The screen has good viewing angles and it stays sharp and vivid throughout.

In terms of imaging, the phone boasts dual ZEISS Optics lens of an ultra-sensitive 12-megapixel wide-angle and a 13MP telephoto, which enables 2x optical zoom capabilities. (more)