Modi moves court against BCCI decisions

Suspended Indian Premier League Commissioner Lalit Modi moved the Bombay high court against the Board of Control for Cricket in India's decision to suspend him and prayed for quashing the disciplinary proceedings against him.

In his petition, moved through his constituted attorney Mehmood Abdi on Thursday, Modi also prayed that the court appoint a mutually acceptable and independent person or panel to consider his replies to the three show-cause notices issued to him by the BCCI alleging various irregularities in the conduct of the T20 League.

The suspension order was issued to Modi by the BCCI on April 25 following which he was slapped show-cause notices on April 26, May 6 and May 31.

Modi has prayed for recall and withdrawal of the suspension order and further proceedings on the three notices.

The suspended IPL commissioner also prayed for restraint on the BCCI from taking any further steps in pursuance of the three show-cause notices and from proceeding further with the hearing of the three-member disciplinary committee.

The three members of the disciplinary panel reconstituted by the BCCI through a Special General Meeting on July 3 are Chirayu Amin, the IPL's Interim Chairman, Arun Jaitley and Jyotiraditya Scindia.

Modi has also challenged the SGM's ratification of BCCI secretary N Srinivasan's decision to refer his matter to the disciplinary committee and has termed the action of the Board in this regard as malafide, illegal, perverse, unconstitutional and liable to be quashed and set aside.

The suspended IPL commissioner has made the BCCI, its president Shashank Manohar, secretary Srinivasan and the three members of the disciplinary committee as respondents to the petition.

On July 6 Modi had sent a legal notice through Abdi to the same six respondents demanding that the disciplinary committee be disbanded and retired judges of the Supreme Court be made members of the panel as he feared the present panel may show bias against him.

He had said in the notice that Amin was an investor in the Pune consortium that bid unsuccessfully for one of the two new IPL franchises and, thus, cannot be a member of the disciplinary committee.