Justice Chandrachud to head the bench  hearing the plea of BCCI 

image-l77yvvlpSourav Ganguly and Jay Shah seek BCCI tenure extension (PC: Twitter)

The Supreme Court (SC) of India on Wednesday (24 August) has chosen Justice Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud to head the bench to hear the plea of BCCI requesting to extend the tenure of President Sourav Ganguly and Secretary Jay Shah. 

Ganguly and Shah came to the helm of BCCI in October 2019. 

The rationale behind Chief Justice of India NV Ramanna choosing Chandrachud is due to him being part of the three-judge bench, which approved BCCI's draft constitution on August 9, 2018. 

The other two judges, CJI Dipak Misra and Justice AM Khanwilkar have already retired, which resulted in Chandrachud being the most credible option for Ramanna. 

According to reports, BCCI's application has been pending in the apex court since May 2020. The 2018 judgement on the Draft constitution meant any amendment to the constitution can not take place without the consent of the SC. 

In this regard,  BCCI wants the court to remove Rule 45, which requires the SC's nod to make any changes in the rules of BCCI. 

“We are emphatically of the view that once the draft constitution has been approved by this Court, any amendment should not be given effect to without the leave of this Court, said the 2018 judgement. 

SC supports a 'cooling-off period' for the BCCI administrators

The recommendation by Justice R.M. Lodha Committee for the reform in the game suggested that the administrators should undergo a ‘cooling-off period’ for three years after six successive years in the office of State Associations or BCCI. 

Ganguly was elected as secretary at the Cricket Association of Bengal in 2014, while Shah started as a joint secretary of the Gujarat Cricket Association in the same year as well. 

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