New Delhi, Sep 20 (IANS) The Supreme Court Wednesday permitted the state cricket associations of Bihar and Jharkhand to vote in the Sep 27 elections to the Indian cricket board and stayed all proceedings pending before various high courts relating to the polls.

A bench comprising judges B.N. Agrawal, P.P. Naolekar and Lokeshwar Singh Panta passed this order on appeals filed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Bihar Cricket Association (BCA) headed by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad against a Jharkhand High Court decision that it could not vote in the election.

The bench modified the high court order and allowed both the BCA and the Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA) to vote in the polls.

On behalf of the BCCI, it was stated that out of the many cricket associations in Bihar it only recognised the one headed by Lalu Prasad.

After Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar, the cricket body of the new state had claimed voting rights on the ground that the headquarters of the BCA was located at Jamshedpur, now in Jharkhand.

However, BCA claimed voting rights contending that all the district associations were owing allegiance to it.

The Jharkhand High Court ruled in favour of the JSCA and the present appeal was against this order.

The BCCI also sought transfer of the cases pending in Jharkhand to Chennai. The bench stayed the proceedings in various high courts on this transfer petition.