The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Thursday directed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to devise a mechanism to check the alleged menace of production of forged date of birth certificates in the age verification programme for U-19 players selected for cricket tournaments.

The Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice Jyotsna Rewal Dua passed these orders on a petition in which it was alleged the practice of forged birth certificates is rampant for quite some time and directed the BCCI to take such a decision within six months.

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The writ petition was filed by one Suresh Kumar in the year 2019 (minor at that time) through his father, Dole Ram in which he had challenged notification dated 22 July 2015 and also the BCCI Age Verification Programme 2015-16.

In the notification eligibility for the Under-19 age group for the purpose of age, determination has been kept as per the government-issued birth certificates as primary evidence and ancillary evidence such as school and hospital records.

The petitioner had urged to direct the respondents to revert to the BCCI protocol being followed before issuance of aforesaid impugned communication, whereby in the case of a player who has already participated in the Under-16 tournament on the basis of TW3 bone test, his age calculated as per the TW3 bone age test, may be considered to be the basis for determining his age and the age so determined may be carried forward by adding one year per season for Under-19 and Under-23 age-group cricket tournaments respectively.

Further, he urged the court to direct BCCI to fix the cut-off date of eligibility for playing Under-16, Under-19, and Under-23 as 1st April instead of 1st September of every year, as the advertisement, which is issued in March/April, makes the players born from 1st April to 31st August ineligible for playing under the age group category tournament and only the players born from 1st September to 31st March are only eligible.

This arbitrary fixation of the cut-off date, according to the petitioner, has shortened his eligibility period to seven months only instead of twelve months.

The petitioner had made very serious allegations alleging that the method adopted by the respondents for determination of age and fixation of the cut-off date is breeding corruption and is giving rise to the preparation/production of forged date of birth certificates in a big way. This situation has also been taken note of and acknowledged by many international players.

The Counsel appearing for respondent BCCI submitted that the petitioner should approach BCCI, as the method of determination of age as also as the cut-off date and the decision, which the BCCI would take, would have PAN India ramifications.

The Court directed the BCCI to treat the writ petition along with its enclosures as a representation of the petitioner, to examine the issues, some of which are really important and pertinent.