NEW DELHI: Delhi lieutenant-governor Najeeb Jung is learned to have recommended to the Centre that the commission of inquiry appointed by the Arvind Kejriwal government under Gopal Subramaniam to probe alleged irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) be set aside as it was legally invalid.

Sources said Jung, in a communication to the home ministry on Wednesday evening, argued that the Commission of Inquiry Act, 1952 empowers only the Centre and state governments to appoint a commission of inquiry. Delhi being a Union Territory short of full statehood, a commission of inquiry may be ordered only with the concurrence of the Centre, through the LG, he said.

Sources pointed out that Jung cited the inquiry into the CNG fitness kit scam set up by the Kejriwal government earlier which was set aside by the Centre on the same ground.

The Centre is likely to examine the matter on Friday, as Thursday was an official holiday on account of Milad-un-Nabi.

Sources at the Centre also claimed that the terms of reference of the Subramaniam panel were too vague and did not fulfill the requirement laid down under the Commission of Inquiry Act. The Act says that a commission can be set up to investigate “any definite matter of public importance”.

“Cricket in Delhi” was too imprecise for the purpose, sources at the Centre said, pointing out that a probe commission set up by the Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan in 2011 to probe the decisions and actions of its preceding regime led by Vasundhara Raje had failed to pass muster with the judiciary.

The Supreme Court had struck down the probe arguing that the commission was set up based on a file noting by Gehlot and not on the basis of a large number of complaints received from the public, as required under the Commission of Inquiry Act.