SC agrees to hear next week plea of BCCI to allow amendment of its constitution

The Supreme Court on Friday said that it will hear next week the plea of the Board of Control for Cricket in India seeking to amend its constitution with regard to the tenure of its office bearers including President Sourav Ganguly and Secretary Jay Shah. A bench of Chief Justice NV Ramana and Krishna Murari was told by senior advocate PS 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 that amendment to the constitution can only be done with prior permission of the court.

The bench said it will see that the matter is listed for next week.

Earlier, the Justice RM Lodha led committee had recommended reforms in the BCCI which have been accepted by the top court.

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 abolition of 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, which has been approved by the top court, stipulates a mandatory three-year cooling off period for anyone who had served two consecutive terms of three years each in 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.