Sourav Ganguly’s tenure as the BCCI president could be numbered as a Supreme Court bench could hear the matter on December 9.
Sourav Ganguly and Jay Shah have been running the BCCI despite their tenures coming to an end in July and May 2020 respectively. However, their days could soon be numbered. According to a report in Outlook, in an order passed by a three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao, the matter on whether Sourav Ganguly and Jay Shah will continue to be at the helm of the BCCI will be listed for the "final hearing on December 9." This is the first time that the Supreme Court has indicated that they would want to close this matter as it was not taken up for months due to the coronavirus pandemic and low priority.
The decision on December 9 could prove to be the ultimate development in the implementation of the Justice RM Lodha panel reforms that was constituted in the wake of the spot-fixing scandal that rocked the IPL in 2013. However, the implementation of the reforms has not been smooth, with several technicalities stalling the initiative.
What is the major issue of contention?
In 2018, the Supreme Court of India approved the new constitution of the BCCI that was drawn up by the CoA (Committee of Administrators) based on the Lodha Committee's recommendations to restructure the board. The key point in the Lodha committee’s recommendations of the cooling off period was that an official has to undergo the mandatory cooling-off period after two consecutive three-year terms at the BCCI or state, or a combination of both.
Jay Shah filed a petition in the Supreme Court to extended his tenure as the secretary of the BCCI in April 2020. Jay Shah was elected as BCCI secretary in October 2019. He was one of the five office-bearers who was elected unopposed in the BCCI elections in Mumbai. Sourav Ganguly (president), Arun Singh Dhumal (treasurer), Jayesh George (joint secretary) and Mahim Verma (vice-president) were the others. Jay Shah had been joint-secretary of Gujarat Cricket Association since 2013 before he became an BCCI office-bearer. Similarly, Sourav Ganguly, who had been a joint secretary and then president of the Cricket Association of Bengal, will also be completing six years either at a state body or BCCI.
The BCCI has argued that the office-bearers cooling off period should be considered only if they complete six years in a state or only in the BCCI and not a combination of both. However, a senior legal expert told Outlook that the BCCI’s petition has no merit. “It was fate accompli once the constitution was approved in 2018. Several CJIs have heard this case and if the BCCI has its way, then it will be death of the Lodha reforms,” the expert said.
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