Bombay High Court dismisses Lalit Modi’s petition

MUMBAI - The Bombay High court on Thursday rejected suspended Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi’s plea to quash the order of suspension and the disciplinary action initiated against him by the BCCI.

A two-member division bench that heard Modi’s writ petition said that it would only consider the appeal to reconstitute the BCCI disciplinary committee formed to inquire into charges of corruption in the IPL by Modi.

Modi will have to attend the BCCI’s disciplinary committee meeting tomorrow.t Wednesday’s hearing, Modi’s lawyer, Virag Tulzhapurkar alleged that the BCCI’s disciplinary committee had vitiated the process of a fair trail and that the Board’s actions were coloured by institutional bias.

Modi had moved the court a week ago, challenging all decisions taken by the BCCI, including the decision to suspend him from his position as IPL Commissioner, and had asked for an independent panel to probe the matter.

The BCCI had in May delivered a show cause notice to Modi on charges of financial irregularity.

There are five main charges against Modi, ranging from receiving kickbacks, for allotting TV broadcast rights to indiscipline and leveling baseless charges against the BCCI.

He is also facing charges of rigging the bidding of two new IPL teams, which were eventually won by Sahara and the Kochi IPL consortium and also for being a ghost owner in three IPL teams.

Modi has claimed that he has submitted most of the relevant IPL documents.

They include all franchisee agreements, global media rights agreements, the global media rights packages, bid documents, media rights licensee agreements, eligibility letters of all bidders with details and all sponsorship agreements entered into by IPL. (ANI)