Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah will have to wait for two weeks to know their fate as the Supreme Court on Wednesday deferred to mid-August the hearing of the board's plea to extend the duo's respective tenures.
The BCCI had filed its pleas -- first in December last and then in April -- seeking a few amendments to the board's revised constitution in 2018. The BCCI, in a bid to overturn the recommendation made by the Justice RM Lodha Committee, had requested the apex court to waive off the mandatory three-year cooling-off period after six years (whether in a state unit or at BCCI or combined) at helm as laid out in the Board's new constitution.
Ganguly, who assumed office at the BCCI last October, is set to finish his term on July 27 while Shah has already reportedly slipped into the cooling-off period. The former India skipper was the president of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) while Shah was the secretary at the Gujarat Cricket Association before assuming their respective roles in the BCCI nine months ago.
The board had also asked the Supreme Court to separate the tenures of officials of the State associations and BCCI for determining the cooling-off period. Among their requests, the Board wanted the court to allow the two to remain in their respective posts till 2025.
Following a short hearing on Wednesday, Chief Justice of India Sharad Bobde and Justice L Nageshwar Rao, said the court will sit again after two weeks. Tentatively, the court will hear the plea in the third week of August.
It remains to be seen whether Ganguly and Shah continue to discharge their duties at the BCCI and if they do so, will it be in violation of its own constitution? For now, the BCCI president is expected to be part of the IPL Governing Council likely to happen next week to decide on the schedule of the 13th edition of the cash-rich league. Shah is also likely to be part of the meeting.
Last Friday, Alka Bhardwaj, the nominee of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in the Apex Council, had raised objection against Shah's presence in the boad's virtual meeting of the council. Bhardwaj had contended that Shah was ineligible to attend the meeting, sighting his term was over.