Justice D Y Chandrachud-led bench to hear BCCI matters, says SC

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the matters related to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), including amending its constitution, would be heard by a bench headed by Justice D Y Chandrachud.

A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana said that earlier judgement of August 9, 2018 in the BCCI matters was passed by a bench comprising then CJI Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and Chandrachud.

The bench, also comprising Justices Hima Kohli and C T Ravikumar, observed that Justices Misra and Khanwilkar have since retired.

"Now, Justice Misra and Justice Khanwilkar are not there. I will list it before Justice Chandrachud and two more judges," the CJI said.

On July 21, the apex court had appointed senior advocate Maninder Singh as an amicus curiae to assist it in the BCCI matters and had posted the hearing on the plea of the cricket body for amending its constitution concerning tenure of office bearers.

The plea of the cricket body seeks to amend its constitution concerning the tenure of its office bearers including its President Sourav Ganguly and Secretary Jay Shah by doing away with the mandatory cooling-off period between tenures of office bearers across state cricket associations and the BCCI.

Earlier, the Justice R M Lodha-led committee had recommended reforms in the BCCI which have been accepted by the top court.

The BCCI, in its proposed amendment, has sought the abolition of a cooling-off period for its office bearers which would enable Ganguly and Shah to continue in office despite them having completed six years at respective state cricket associations.

The constitution of BCCI, which has been approved by the top court, stipulates a mandatory three-year cooling-off period for anyone who had served two consecutive terms of three years each in the state cricket association or the BCCI.

While Ganguly was an office bearer in the Cricket Association of Bengal, Shah had served in the Gujarat Cricket Association.