HC dismisses Modi plea on BCCI panel
Mumbai, Sept. 15: The Bombay High Court dismissed for the second time the petition filed by suspended IPL chairman Lalit Modi, challenging constitution of the BCCI disciplinary committee, formed to look into the alleged irregularities committed by him.
Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud also refused to stay the proceedings of the disciplinary committee.
Modi had argued in the petition that two members of the committee — Arun Jaitley and Chirayu Amin — are likely to be biased against him and pleaded that they should be replaced.
The court, however, held that Modi can raise the issue of bias at a later stage while challenging the final decision of the committee and the BCCI.
The suspended IPL chief had earlier also filed petition on the same grounds but another division bench in July said that he could raise the issue before the committee itself.
The committee subsequently rejected his argument on August 11 holding that Amin and Jaitley need not pull out.
Being aggrieved, Modi moved the High Court second time but the court did not grant him any relief today.
Modi's argument in both the petitions had been that since Amin and Jaitley were part of the IPL Governing Council. which had held him prima facie guilty of some irregularities, they should not sit on the panel conducting inquiry.
Also, in Amin's case, Modi's lawyer Ram Jethmalani had said that Modi had "exposed" him by disclosing earlier that Amin was interested in buying stake in IPL's Pune franchise. Hence, Amin would be biased, he said.
But court today held that as per BCCI regulations, Amin had not committed any illegality, so there was no substance in the apprehension. The concerned bidder had failed to win the franchise, court noted saying that there was no "conflict of interest".
"There has to be some material on record to prove allegations of bias...(legal) test in such cases is real danger of bias and not an apprehenstion of bias," court said.
Saying that High Court need not intervene in disciplinary panel's proceedings at this stage, High Court added that it was not expressing any "final opinion on the controversy".
The court said that merely because BCCI general body, of which Amin and Jaitley were a part, scrapped 2009 agreeements with World Sports Group for IPL media rights, it can not "disqualify" the duo.
The termination of WSG contract was not the issue before disciplinary committee, court said.
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