Following the rejection of his petition on Thursday against the Cricket Board by the Bombay High Court, decks have been cleared for suspended IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi to appear before BCCI's Disciplinary Committee on Friday to answer various charges levelled against him.
Mr. Modi is out of the country presently and is unlikely to make it in time for the 12 noon summons by the committee comprising IPL's interim Chairman Chirayu Amin, Arun Jaitley and Jyotiraditya Scindia.
“He has to appear personally before the Disciplinary Committee,” said BCCI CAO Prof Ratnakar Shetty when asked whether any other person can represent the suspended T20 League Chairman.
Mr. Modi responded with a staggering 15,000-page reply to the first show cause notice served on him on April 26 by the Board accusing him of financial irregularities and bid-rigging.
He also responded to the two subsequent notices issued to him by the Board against the charges of trying to undermine the world and Indian cricket structure and wrong-doings in the granting of theatrical rights for the IPL.
Mr. Modi denied all these charges and also counter-punched by accusing BCCI's Secretary N. Srinivasan of holding a personal grudge against him and wanted the latter as well as the president Shashank Manohar to desist from playing a part in subsequent disciplinary proceedings.
Mr. Manohar recued himself from the three-man panel and was replaced by Mr. Scindia who was nominated to the committee at the Board's Special General Meeting earlier this month.
BCCI's SGM also ratified the action of Mr. Srinivasan in referring the charges against Mr. Modi and his replies to the Disciplinary Committee for further proceedings.
The 30-member body also authorised Mr. Manohar to initiate civil and criminal proceedings against Mr. Modi.
Dissatisfied with the reconstituted body, the suspended IPL chief first sent a legal notice to the BCCI demanding an independent disciplinary panel consisting of retired Supreme Court judges.
Mr. Modi specifically wanted removal of Mr. Amin from the panel, contending he cannot take part in the proceedings in relation to IPL after being a member of the failed consortium that bid for one of two new T20 League's franchisees earlier.
When the BCCI did not respond, the high-flying administrator moved the Bombay High Court praying for quashing of the disciplinary proceedings and reconstitution of the panel.
His petition was today rejected by the HC leaving the door open for BCCI's three-member Disciplinary Committee to start its proceedings tomorrow.
The Committee has time till October 25 to finalise its report and submit it to the Board. One of the members, Mr. Amin, has already indicated the job would be done by September, an obvious hint it would be completed before the BCCI AGM.
If the committee upholds the charges against Mr. Modi, he can be expelled for three years from the Board through a 3/4th majority at the Special General Meeting when it is convened to decide his fate. Meanwhile, Mr. Modi's camp is awaiting the receipt of the complete order of the court in hand before deciding on its future course of action.
"The next course of action will be decided only after getting the complete copy of the Bombay High Court order," said Mr. Modi's legal counsel Mehmood Abdi after the verdict.
