NEW DELHI: After a long legal battle, the BCCI on Wednesday was allowed to tweak its constitution to pave the way for its president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah to continue in office for another term of three years. The Supreme Court gave the board permission to rework the clause in its constitution that prevented them from continuing in office without a mandatory cooling-off period.
Terming the provision of office-bearers required to undergo a cooling-off period after completing one term of three years in a state association and one term (3 years) in BCCI as stringent, a bench of justices D Y Chandrachud and Hima Kohli accepted BCCI’s plea to waive the clause.
The SC also said the cooling-off period would now apply after two consecutive terms of three years in office in either the state unit or in the BCCI. This means that an office-bearer in a state unit will have to undergo a cooling-off if the person continues in the state unit but not if he/she moves to the BCCI.
“Bearing in mind the purpose for which the cooling-off was included, we are of the considered view that proposed amendment would not dilute the object and purpose of introducing cooling-off period with the result that cooling-off will come to effect once a candidate has completed two consecutive terms in the BCCI and the state association. We, therefore, accept the proposed amendment,” the court said in its order.
The bench also accepted the amendment for not disqualifying a person who holds any office or post in any federation apart from cricket from being an office bearer.