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Govt plans to regulate autonomous and rich societies like BCCI

NEW DELHI: The central government proposes to enact a legislation to force transparency and public accountability in business activities of multi-state societies like Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), one of the worlds richest sports bodies. Corporate affairs minister M Veerappa Moily said the government felt the need for a new law as the over 150 year old legislation, the Societies Registration Act, was unable to account for multi-faceted business activities undertaken by societies in different states. Though the societies come within the ambit of the state list, empowering state governments to enact a law, the Centre felt that there was an urgent need to draft a model law on the subject in public interest to infuse transparency in the activities of societies. Although the move is generic in nature and applies to all societies operating across several states, BCCI will be among the most prominent bodies to be covered by it. It comes at a time when sports ministry is facing resistance from sports administrators and other quarters to extend the ambit of RTI to BCCI and other sports bodies. The response of the sports bodies to the move from the corporate affairs ministry could be worth watching. Moily justified the need for the legislation. There is a need to provide for a new and comprehensive regulatory framework for these non-corporate business entities, that is the societies, in the wake of general public interest in the regulation of such organisations, he said. Once Parliament enacts a model law on regulating the societies, the state legislatures can adopt it, he said. There is also an urgent need for alignment of reporting and disclosure requirements for such entities in a manner similar to the ministry of corporate affairs e-governance platforms for companies and limited liability partnerships in India to have more transparency in their working and public accountability, he said. In every case before the Supreme Court, BCCI has argued that it being a society registered under Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act, it was autonomous in character and independent of the government. With the advent of the Indian Premier League and the enormous cash flow and subsequent controversies, the government thought of a law to bring in transparency in the business activities of such societies, which are registered in one state but carry on business in many states.

                                                                                                               
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