Supreme Court modifies order on term limits

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday provided some relief to the beleaguered Board of Control for Cricket in India, allowing administrators to effectively serve 18 years in office after it ruled that holding posts in the Board and in state associations would not be considered cumulatively.

The court, headed by then Chief Justice T.S. Thakur, had on January 2 said that a person was disqualified from holding any post if he “has been an office bearer of BCCI or a state association for a cumulative period of nine years”.

However, a newly-set up bench of Justices Dipak Misra, A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud modified that order to the effect that a nine-year (three-term) tenure of office-bearers in state association or in the BCCI would not be considered cumulatively.

The clarification came during the course of the day’s hearing on pleas filed by attorney-general Mukul Rohatgi for the union government, and Kapil Sibal on behalf of three state associations. Following protests from Sibal and Rohatgi that the nine-year cap was contrary to the Lodha recommendations and needed to be modified, the bench said the nine-year tenure would be applicable independently to state associations and the BCCI.

Other than those disqualified on grounds of age, it effectively opens the doors for younger administrators to step in and take up the reins. Sourav Ganguly, for example, having served all his time in the Cricket Association of Bengal, can effectively be considered for a BCCI post, unless his term on the cricket committee is taken into account as well

Friday’s clarification also essentially contradicted the Lodha committee’s interpretation of the court’s order of January 2, when the panel held that any office-bearer would be ineligible to continue if he had served nine years in total, whether at BCCI or state level or combined.