During the hearing, the Attorney General raised the issue

of downgrading membership of Railways, Services and Association of Universities from permanent to associate and said that it needed to be rectified.

"Railways is pan-India so it cannot be given the voting rights as permanent member. What kind of logic is this?" Rohatgi asked, adding that the principle of 'one state-one vote' defied logic.

We are not concerned with any new state being given permanent membership. Railways cannot be stripped of its permanent membership, he said.

The court said it would deal with the issue at a later stage.

Earlier, former BCCI President Anurag Thakur, slapped with a contempt notice for filing a "false affidavit" in the Supreme Court, had tendered "unconditional and unqualified apology" before the apex court.

The bench said that it would deal with the issue later and exempted Thakur from personal appearance on future dates.

The apex court had on January 2 come down heavily on the defiant BCCI brass and removed Thakur and Ajay Shirke as the President and Secretary for "obstructing and impeding" its directions for overhauling governance in the cricket body.

The bench had slapped Thakur with contempt and perjury notices for filing a false affidavit over writing to the ICC on the issue of autonomy.

On January 30, the apex court had appointed a four-member committee of administrators headed by former Comptroller and Auditor General of India Vinod Rai to run BCCI's affairs and implement court-approved recommendations of the Justice R M Lodha panel on reforms in the cash-rich cricket body.

Other three members of the committee of administrators include historian Ramachandra Guha, Vikram Limaye, IDFC Managing Director, and former Indian women's cricket team captain Diana Edulji.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)