NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday said that it would hear the plea filed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) seeking to amend its constitution with regard to the tenure of its office-bearers, including president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah, next week.
A bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Krishna Murari was told by senior advocate P S Patwalia, appearing for the BCCI, that their application was filed two years ago and direction was given by the court to list the matter after two weeks.
“But then Covid happened and matter could not be listed. Please list this matter for urgent hearing because amendments to the constitution are in pipeline for two years now,” he said. Patwalia said the earlier order of the court says an amendment to the constitution can only be done with the prior permission of the court. The bench said it will see that the matter is listed for next week.
The Justice R M Lodha-led committee had recommended reforms in the BCCI which have been accepted by the SC. According to the recommendations, there should be a three-year cooling-off period for the office bearers of the BCCI after a tenure of six years once a post comes to an end at the state cricket association or at the BCCI level.
The BCCI, in its proposed amendment, has sought the abolition of the cooling-off period for its office-bearers which would enable BCCI president Ganguly and secretary Shah to continue in office despite them having completed six years at respective state cricket associations.
The constitution of BCCI stipulates a mandatory three-year cooling-off period for anyone who had served two consecutive terms of three years each in the state cricket association or in BCCI. While Ganguly was an office-bearer in the Cricket Association of Bengal, Shah had served in the Gujarat Cricket Association