New Delhi, Feb. 6 -- The Supreme Court on Thursday ended the embargo on BJP MP and former Union minister Anurag Thakur to associate with the BCCI, ending the nine-year old hiatus that kept him away from the Board for not implementing Justice Lodha Committee reforms in BCCI. A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and justice Joymalya Bagchi said, "We modify para 25(ii) of our order dated Jan 2, 2017 to the extent that the applicant shall be free to participate in the affairs of BCCI as per Rules and Regulations." Thakur had moved his application in 2018. The ire of the court was directed against the BCCI office bearers and its state affiliates for failing to comply with the norms set out by a committee headed by former CJI RM Lodha. Thakur was the then BCCI president and had to step down following this order. Senior advocate PS Patwalia who appeared for Thakur told the court that the court never intended to ban his client for life and in any event, several other directions in the same order of Jan 2017 to initiate contempt proceedings against him came to be dropped on tendering an unconditional apology. In his application, Thakur said, "The order has visited the applicant with adverse civil consequences without hearing the applicant.These remarks have caused immense mental anguish and public embarrassment and have also been a matter of public discussion and debate which has affected the public image of the applicant adversely." The bench said, "We find it a fit case to apply the doctrine of proportionality to hold that neither this court intended to impose a life ban nor such a serious embargo was contemplated in the facts and circumstances of the case." Senior advocates Maninder Singh and Sridhar Potaraju jointly assisting the court as amicus curiae had also recommended to the court that in July 2017 Thakur's apology was accepted by the court and contempt proceeding against him was dropped. In this light, they urged the court to favourably consider the recall plea. The committee of administrators appointed by the court to implement the reforms was represented by Gopal Sankaranarayanan who objected to Thakur's claim that he was not heard by the court before passing of the order. He told the court that the Lodha Committee reforms were made binding on BCCI and state associations by a judgment passed in July 2016....