BCCI vs COA: 'One state one vote' and 'cooling-off period' clauses can be reconsidered, says Supreme Court bench

The ‘One-State-One-Vote’ and ‘cooling-off period’ clauses from the Lodha committee-proposed reforms can be reconsidered, observed the Supreme Court bench comprising of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra, Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice DY Chandrachud in what could be a positive movement for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). According to a report on  News18, the ‘One-State-One-Vote’ clause will be reconsidered given that there are associations more than a century old that have been actively contributing to the game in India. As far as the cooling-off period is concerned, a person holding a post in an association or in BCCI need not go through the cooling-off phase if applying for a different post in the organisation. [caption id=“attachment_3779293” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representative image. Reuters[/caption] “What we are looking at is a situation wherein a person who is the president, has to go into cooling-off if he is nominated again for the same post. But in case of change of position, there shouldn’t be a need for cooling-off as continuity is also an important factor in functioning of the board,” said a Board official, the details of which had been orally observed by Justice Chandrachud. The bench additionally heard submissions towards issues such as the 70-year age cap, increasing the number of selectors to five from three as well as modifying the eligibility requirements of a national selector to a minimum of 35 First-Class matches from the present requirement of having to had simply played Test cricket for India. There was also a submission raising objection to the ban on ministers in the Board. The Supreme Court bench however, reaffirmed that the original judgement delivered on 18 July, 2016 will continue to stand, and there won’t be any scope for it to be reconsidered. The bench added that it will ratify the new BCCI constitution, which was to be announced on Thursday before getting deferred to a later date, with necessary changes and that no election in any state association can take place until then.