Jay Shah, the secretary of the BCCI, and Sourav Ganguly, the president, can continue in their positions and complete an additional three-year term. The Supreme Court waived the cooling-off period on Wednesday, allowing the Board of Control for Cricket in India to amend its constitution. As a result, Jay Shah, the BCCI secretary, and Sourav Ganguly, the BCCI president, can now continue in their positions and complete another three-year term. In the future, whether in a state association or the BCCI, an administrator will only be required to take a cooling-off period after serving two consecutive terms (of three years each).
The Supreme Court made its comments at a hearing on the Board’s request to change its bylaws and do away with the required cooling-off period for officers of state cricket associations and the BCCI, including its president and secretary. According to Cricinfo, Justice Chandrachud made it clear during the hearing on Wednesday that the new amendment permits BCCI or state association office holders to hold their positions cumulatively for 12 years without taking a break, which is very different from the initial 2016 ruling that mandated a break after every three-year term.
“Existing position is by using the word combination, even if you have completed one term in state government and one term in the BCCI, then you are out,” he said. However, our proposal is to impose a three-year cooling-off period after serving six years at the state level (at state). You are not subject to a cooling-off period if you have not completed six years at the same level. Because they are two different levels, “We are giving a more liberal thing: you can do six in the state and then immediately do six in the BCCI. But take a three-year break after finishing two terms in a row at two different levels.
An office bearer of the state association was not permitted to hold a position in BCCI under the current constitution without first serving a three-year cooling-off period. However, according to PTI, Tushar Mehta, the legal representative for the BCCI, stated before a two-judge bench on Tuesday that “Leadership develops at the grassroots level and it remains in the state association. When the time comes for him to be promoted to the BCCI, he is required to complete a three-year cooling-off period. If a person is not an active member of the state association, they cannot join the BCCI.
The position held by a BCCI office bearer in a state organisation, he continued, should not be taken into account when calculating the cooling-off period.