Supreme Court: BCCI plea to be listed before panel led by Justice Chandrachud

The Supreme Court has directed that the BCCI’s plea to allow amendments to its constitution to do away with the cool-off period be listed before a panel led by Justice D. Y. Chandrachud.

A Bench led by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana on Wednesday referred a plea by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to amend its Constitution to another Bench headed by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud.

When the case came up for hearing, Chief Justice Ramana, who is retiring on August 26, said Justice Chandrachud has dealt with the BCCI case earlier and even written a judgment in the case. The Chief Justice noted that the case would be referred to Justice Chandrachud for further hearing.

In an earlier hearing on July 21, the apex court had appointed senior advocate Maninder Singh as its new amicus curiae while adjourning the case. Mr. Singh had replaced P.S. Narasimha, who was appointed a Supreme Court judge.

The case is significant for BCCI as the date of amendments may decide the tenures of its president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah.

BCCI has urged the court to revise a rule in its new Constitution which mandates that administrators have to go through a three-year cooling-off period after successive years in the BCCI or any State association.

The ‘cooling-off period’ was a major recommendation made by the Justice R.M. Lodha Committee to reform cricket administration in the country.

In its 2018 judgment, the apex court had seen eye-to-eye with Justice Lodha’s conclusion that “the game will be better off without cricketing oligopolies”.