BCCI President Sourav Ganguly with Jay Shah (left) and Arun Dhumal (right)[/caption]
Three top Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) office-bearers; Sourav Ganguly, Jay Shah, and Jayesh George will continue to stay in power, for now.
The Supreme Court yesterday (15) could not hear the BCCI matter fully “as the amicus curiae still had to file some reports relating to the petitions listed for deliberation,” the Indian media said yesterday.
The Supreme Court Bench of Justice L. Nageswara Rao and Justice Vineet Saran has decided to hear the BCCI matter “after two weeks.”
Following an eager wait
Amicus P.S. Narasimha said in yesterday’s virtual hearing that he will file his reports by this weekend. Narasimha was appointed in March 2019 to assist the Supreme Court in disposing of several cases related to cricket administration in India.
Ganguly along with Shah and George were to know on Thursday yesterday if they could continue as BCCI office-bearers. The matter had been pending for months before the Supreme Court.
Going by the guidelines of the BCCI, the trio should be in their cooling-off period at the moment with the terms for their respective positions having ended midway last year.
Admonishing Solicitor General of India
According to the BCCI Constitution that was passed by the Supreme Court in August 2018, the three officials should have been in their cooling-off period for three years after spending six years as cricket administrators either in a State Association or BCCI.
A two-judge bench was to hear the BCCI matter on Thursday morning.
Justice Rao, who had investigated betting and match-fixing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2014, is keen to dispose of the BCCI matter. On 16 February, he had admonished Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, the BCCI counsel, for repeatedly seeking adjournments.
Seeing the back of Srinivasan and Thakur
Justice Rao had said: “We can’t keep adjourning like this. We had adjourned six times. Don’t adjourn ... we will not adjourn it... list on March 23.” But it could not be heard on 23 March too as Justice Rao had been busy as part of the Constitution Bench hearing the Maratha Reservation case.
Justice Rao was the eminent legal figure who saw the removal of two former BCCI Presidents, Narayanaswamy Srinivasan and Anurag Thakur, by the Supreme Court.
BCCI seeking six amendments
The BCCI is asking for six amendments in the Constitution that was approved by a former Chief Justice of India, Justice Dipak Misra. Among many things, BCCI wants Ganguly, Shah, and George to continue and no “cooling off” should be applied.
Ganguly was formally elected as the 39th BCCI President on October 23, 2019. Along with Ganguly, Jay Shah (Secretary), Arun Dhumal (Treasurer), Mahim Verma (Vice President) and Jayesh George (Joint Secretary) were appointed for their respective positions as well.