Disqualification rules apply only to Office Bearers - Supreme Court

TNCA cleared to conduct elections despite failing to adhere to adopt new constitution before September 12 deadline. © AFP

The Supreme Court of India clarified that disqualification rules pertaining to tenure and cooling off periods, as decreed by the Lodha recommendations, applied only to Office Bearers, thereby clearing councillors of managing committees, executive committees and other governing bodies in state associations to be elected into the apex council.

As per the Lodha committee recommendation ratified by Supreme Court order dated July 18, 2016, and clarified later after multiple deliberations, administrators were allowed a total tenure of nine years each at the state associations and at BCCI with a cooling off period mandatorily following two successive three-year terms.

With state associations adopting new constitutions and moving towards election - to be conducted before September 28 - clarification was sought from the Supreme Court over the eligibility criteria after the Committee of Administrators specified that the tenure and cooling off periods applied to councillors also thereby deeming several of them ineligible to be elected into the apex council.

The bench comprising Justices Sharad Bobde and L. Nageswar Rao, however, directed that disqualification norms "shall remain confined to office-bearers only" thereby technically adding another three-year term to their collective tenures.

The Supreme Court also cleared the way for all states to conduct elections, particularly so the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) despite the state body failing to meet the September 12 deadline to adopt the new constitution. The TNCA was cleared to appoint an assistant secretary, a post the association had requested to oversee cricket operations in the 30 districts under its wing.