New Delhi: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and cricketer Ajay Jadeja have agreed to settle the issue of five-year ban on him on match-fixing charges through arbitration and withdrew their cases from the Delhi High Court, which consequently has referred the matter to the arbitrator. "The appellant (BCCI) and Jadeja have suggested that let the matter be referred to the sole arbitrator, Justice J K Mehra, retired Judge of this Court. We order accordingly," a High Court division Bench comprising Justice Usha Mehra and Justice R C Jain in its order said. The issue is expected to be placed before the arbitrator shortly as per the mutual agreement between the Board and Jadeja. The Court made it clear that its order passed in the "special circumstances of the case will not be treated as a precedent in any other case of whatsoever nature. The court vacated all its interim directions issued in the case, including a single judge bench order of September 17, 2001 holding that Jadeja's petition against BCCI for challenging the ban was maintainable and it needed to be heard on merits. The court said both BCCI and Jadeja had agreed that they would not question the powers of Central government and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) before the arbitrator. After completion of initial procedural formalities of filing documents, the arbitrator "will set down the matter for hearing and dispose it, as far as possible within two months", the Court said adding the arbitrator would fix his fees himself. It said Jadeja would have a right to approach the court if any of his right to agitate survived. "The right of petitioner, if any survives, he can agitate the same," the Court said. Jadeja had challenged the five-year ban on him on the ground that it was based on BCCI's legal officer K Madhavan's findings about the allegations of match-fixing against him, which in turn were "entirely based" on the report of CBI. "The CBI itself had stated that its report on match-fixing issue was not legally enforceable," Jadeja's counsel P P Malhotra had argued. He also alleged that Madhavan, while probing the matter on behalf of BCCI neither gave any chance to Jadeja to explain his position nor supplied any documents to him. Aggrieved by the single judge's order that Jadeja's writ petition against the BCCI was maintainable, the Board had filed an appeal before the division Bench.
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