HC stays BCB constitution

The High Court on Thursday issued a rule nisi on the National Sports Council (NSC) asking them why the amended constitution of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) should not be considered illegal.
A High court bench comprising Justice Naima Haider and Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar also issued a stay order on the amended constitution for three months.
"The court issued a rule nisi and granted a stay order for three months. That means the board can't function under the new constitution for the next three months; rather they should work under the 2008 constitution," Barrister Mahbub Shafique, who is the lawyer for writ petitioners Mobasher Hossain, the architect and former BCB director, and Yousuf Jamil Babu, president of the Bangladesh District and Divisional Sports Organisers' Association, told The Daily Star over phone last night.
"NSC inserted some clauses out of motion and they didn't follow the procedure, which is why we challenged this latest amendment," he added.
The NSC recently approved BCB's new constitution, bringing in major changes to the one that had been sent to them after an extraordinary general meeting of the BCB on March 1.
One of the changes adopted and approved in the amended 2012 BCB constitution was that the BCB president would be elected by the directors instead of the councillors.
Earlier, a BCB president was nominated by the government. The previous board, the tenure of which expired on November 26, however adopted a resolution for an elected BCB president through councillors' vote which the NSC eventually did not endorse.
The NSC also approved an increase of councillorship of the top six Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League clubs (according to the last standings of the League) from one to two and the new constitution also relaxed the clause about the councillorship of the district and divisional organisations. Under the amended constitution, someone from other districts can obtain councillorship of any district.
It also adopted the provision for three selected directors from the NSC -- the country's regulatory sports authority -- in the 27-member board of directors including the president, in the constitution.
The BCB is currently being run by an ad-hoc committee.