On borrowed time, BCCI officials set to rule for some more as SC verdict awaited

By Qaiser Mohammad Ali New Delhi, Dec 6 : When the Indian cricket board holds its Annual General Meeting on December 24, the Supreme Court would be on winter vacation. Its vacation is from December 18 to January 1, and it means that the much-delayed cricket reforms case would most probably spill into the New Year. It also means that Sourav Ganguly, Jay Shah, and Jayesh George would continue in the chair in 2021, despite their terms having got over the past few months.
The new constitution of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) makes it mandatory for its office-bearers — President, Vice President, Secretary, Joint Secretary, and Treasurer — to go into a three-year cooling-off period after being in the chair for six consecutive years, either in the BCCI or its affiliate state association, or a combination of both.
The person can return for another term of three years after the cooling-off period (a person can be an office-bearer in the BCCI for a maximum of nine years and another nine years in a state association). And this is one of the seven crucial rules, on which the edifice of the new constitution is erected, they seek to amend so that they could continue to rule.
The case was first filed as a Public Interest Litigation in the Bombay High Court in July 2013, relating to a betting-fixing scandal in the 2013 Indian Premier League (IPL). But after receiving only partial favourable judgment from there, it was moved to the Supreme Court in August that year. Since then, the Supreme Court has delivered as many as six judgments and numerous orders have been passed, and 287 applications have been filed.
After being elected BCCI President on October 23 last year, Ganguly had only 278 days to remain in the post as his previous tenure at the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) was added to his BCCI term (he had joined the CAB as a Joint Secretary in July 2014). So, his BCCI term effectively ended on July 26, 2020.
Secretary Jay Shah, according to reports published in mainline newspapers in 2013, took over as Joint Secretary of the Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA) on September 8, 2013, though he was a GCA executive before that. And he has been associated with the GCA since. So his tenure, too, has gotten over some time ago.