The former cricket administrator, Lalit Modi, has been imposed with a cost of Rs 1 lakh by the Bombay High Court and dismissed his petition seeking a command for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to pay a penalty of Rs 10.65 crore imposed on him by the ED for a breach of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). Division bench of Justices M S Sonak and Jitendra Jain, in its order giving for Thursday, said the petition was “frivolous and wholly misconceived” as the authority assigned under FEMA has been pronounced a penalty on Modi.
Modi in his plea said that he had been made as BCCI vice president and at the same time was also chairman of Indian Premier League governing body, which was a subcommittee of BCCI.
While the pleas state that the BCCI is supposed to indemnify him as per bylaws.
The HC bench however referred to a Supreme Court judgment of 2005 which stated that BCCI does not fall within the definition of ‘State’ as defined under Article 12 of the Constitution of India.
The HC bench noted that Modi was filing this petition in 2018 despite the clear orders given by the apex court.
The High Court said, “There is no question of public function discharge in alleged indemnification of the petitioner (Modi) in the context of penalties imposed upon the petitioner by ED and, therefore, for this purpose no writ could be issued to the BCCI”.
The court dismissed the petition stating that “in any event, the reliefs are completely misconceived. This petition is frivolous and hence we dismiss this petition” and also directed Modi to pay a sum of Rs 1 lakh to Tata Memorial Hospital within four weeks.
