Picture Credit: Twitter
The Supreme Court on Wednesday adjourned the hearing on the plea of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) seeking an amendment to its constitution in regard to the tenure of its office bearers including President Sourav Ganguly and Secretary Jay Shah. The court adjourned the hearing till Thursday at the request of BCCI’s lawyer Harish Salve. Notably, the BCCI moved to Supreme Court a few days ago seeking permission to amend Rule 6 of the constitution.
A bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli deferred will hear the matter on Thursday after senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the BCCI, sought adjournment. Meanwhile, the counsel for the Bihar Cricket Association said that office bearers are continuing in office after their terms have ended technically. "Tomorrow! one day nothing will happen! What is the hurry? the bench said in reply.
Earlier, the bench had agreed to list the plea of BCCI for an urgent hearing at the request of senior advocate PS Patwalia. The senior advocate appearing for the BCCI had said 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 had said.
Notably, Rule 6 of the BCCI Constitution mandates an officer bearer to serve a mandatory cooling-off period for three years once a post comes to an end at the state cricket association or at the BCCI level after serving a tenure of six years.
Meanwhile, 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.
It’s worth mentioning that while Ganguly was an office bearer in the Cricket Association of Bengal, Shah had served in the Gujarat Cricket Association before taking over their respective posts in the BCCI.