Supreme Court to listen to plea on Sourav Ganguly term next week

If the new constitution is approved, it'd enable the BCCI president and Jay Shah to continue in their posts for a minimum of another three years

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to look at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)’s plea for urgent listing of its application for approval of its amended constitution which might enable the board’s president and secretary to possess six-year terms before entering the cooling-off period as against the general six-year term, including the stint at the state associations, prescribed by the Justice R.M. Lodha Committee.

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly is presently the BCCI president while Jay Shah, the son of Union home minister Amit Shah, is that the secretary. If the new constitution is approved, it'd enable the duo to continue in their posts for a minimum of another three years. “We will see if we will take it up next week,” the bench of justice N.V. Ramana and Justice Krishna Murari told senior advocate and former additional solicitor-general P.S. Patwalia, who sought urgent listing of the applying originally filed by the Board on April 21, 2020.

Appearing for the BCCI, Patwalia told the court that the amendments, which require the approval of the apex court, are within the pipeline and will not come up for hearing thanks to the intervening Covid situation. “Lordship may list my application for urgent hearing. the appliance was filed two years ago in April 2020. there have been directions for listing it after period of time, on the other hand Covid came and therefore the matter couldn't be listed. The amendments are in pipeline for 2 years. Kindly list the matter,” Patwalia pleaded, to which the bench agreed to contemplate the plea for listing next week, but failed to given any specific date.

According to the amended rules, “A President or Secretary who has served in such position for 2 consecutive terms within the BCCI shall not be eligible to contest from now on election without completing a cooling off period of three years. During the cooling off period, such Office bearer shall not be a member of the Governing Council or of any committee whatsoever of the BCCI. The expression ‘President’ or ‘Secretary mustn't be permitted to be circumvented by being a member of the other committee or of the Governing Council in BCCI because the case could also be.”

As per the first recommendations of the Lodha panel, an office-bearer who has held any post for 2 consecutive terms either during a state association or within the BCCI (or a mixture of both) shall not be eligible to contest from now on election without completing a cooling-off period of three years. During the cooling-off period, such an office-bearer shall not be a member of the Governing Council or of any committee whatsoever of the BCCI or of a state association.