NEW DELHI: Acting on expected lines, the Supreme Court on Wednesday accepted the proposed changes to the Board of Control for Cricket in India's constitution, which will allow current BCCI secretary Jay Shah and its president Sourav Ganguly to get an extension to their respective terms.
The board had put in a plea for modification of its constitution on mandatory cooling off period and tenure of its office bearers. The Apex Court, in its order stated that office bearers can have a continuous tenure of 12 years, which includes six years at a state association and six years in the BCCI. Both Ganguly and Shah's respective three-year terms at the BCCI were set to expire shortly.
A Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli ruled that an office bearer can have continuous tenure of 12 years, which includes six years in a state association and six years at the BCCI before the cooling-off period of three years kicks in.
The Bench ruled that an office bearer can serve on a particular post for two consecutive terms, both at the BCCI and the state association level, after which he would have to serve a three-year cooling-off period.
"The purpose of the cooling-off period is not to create undesirable monopolies," the Bench said.
The top court's order came on the board's plea seeking to amend its constitution concerning the tenure of its office bearers by doing away with the mandatory cooling-off period between tenures of office bearers across state cricket associations and the BCCI.
The BCCI, in its proposed amendment, has sought the abolition of a cooling-off period for its office bearers which would enable Shah and Ganguly to continue in office as secretary and president despite their having completed six years at their respective state cricket associations.
Earlier, the Justice RM Lodha-led committee had recommended reforms in the BCCI which had been accepted by two separate benches of the top court.
The constitution of the BCCI, which was earlier 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 the state cricket association or the BCCI.
While Ganguly was an office bearer in the Cricket Association of Bengal, Shah had served in the Gujarat Cricket Association.
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