Can a young cricketer keep an OCI card and still play in BCCI tournaments? The Bombay High Court has told twelve petitioners, in oral remarks, that they would have to choose, and wants the status of their citizenship applications on 25 November.
Mumbai: Bombay High Court to OCI cricketers who challenge the BCCI’s rule making an Indian passport mandatory for its tournaments: those who wish to represent India should take Indian citizenship, the Bench said orally. It has asked the BCCI, the Central Government and the petitioners to state on the next date where the citizenship applications of OCI card holders stand [Kavin Kartik v. BCCI].
Chief Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Justice Advait Sethna sat as the Division Bench that heard the matter earlier this week. It is listed for 25 November 2026. Advocate Kunal Cheema, with Datta Mane, appeared for the petitioners and Senior Advocate Dr Birendra Saraf for the BCCI. The Central Government, a party to the petition, has not yet filed its affidavit.
Twelve cricketers, one rule
Writ Petition No. 2307 of 2026 has been filed by twelve cricketers who hold OCI cards and, according to their counsel, study and live in India. They challenge the BCCI’s requirement of an Indian passport for participation in tournaments conducted under its aegis, which they say shuts them out of domestic cricket. Their counsel told the Court that no such restriction existed until 2023.
Cheema submitted that the petitioners only seek to play domestic cricket, where they can build the record needed for selection to the Indian Premier League, and that they are young people being denied a part of their education, since sport is a facet of the right to education. He pointed out that OCI card holders can practise professions such as medicine and law, and said he would place international conventions on record that recognise a child’s right to choose citizenship and bar compelling a change.
“Make a choice”: the Bench in oral exchanges
The Chief Justice asked counsel to show a developed country where such a request had been acceded to, wondered whether OCI holders could get a government job or compete in the civil services, and suggested the petitioners could play in the IPL. Counsel argued that no one should be forced to change citizenship. The Bench replied that nobody was compelling them, but that they would have to make a choice and could not have both the right to play and the OCI card.
If they were so keen to represent India, the Chief Justice added, they should become Indian citizens, and he noted the abundance of cricketing talent in the country. These are oral observations made during the hearing and not findings.
What the BCCI told the Court
The OCI scheme under the Citizenship Act, 1955 gives persons of Indian origin who hold foreign passports a lifelong visa and several rights, but it is not citizenship, and the petitioners’ counsel acknowledged that OCI holders cannot play for India at the international level. Saraf submitted that, since the Act does not allow OCI holders to play at that level, they cannot claim a livelihood from cricket.
He said the Board invests in and develops players through the Ranji Trophy and its other tournaments, that school, college and academy cricket remain open to the petitioners, and that the Board would welcome them if they became Indian citizens. Some of them have already applied, he added, and those applications are pending. Players can play cricket as a hobby but not as a source of livelihood, he said.
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The direction for 25 November
With the Centre’s affidavit not on record, the Bench was inclined to adjourn, but it heard counsel at their request. On 25 November the BCCI, the Central Government and the petitioners are to inform it of the status of citizenship applications made by OCI card holders who wish to switch citizenship to play for India. No interim relief was granted or refused.
Case Title: Kavin Kartik v. Board of Control for Cricket in India and Others [Writ Petition No. 2307 of 2026]
Bench: Chief Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Justice Advait Sethna, Bombay High Court
Next Hearing: November 25, 2026
Appearances: Advocate Kunal Cheema with Advocate Datta Mane for the petitioners; Senior Advocate Dr Birendra Saraf for the BCCI