Court delays BCCI meet on Modi

The Patiala House Court in New Delhi has stayed the BCCI's special general meeting (SGM) on September 25, when the board was supposed to ban former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi for life from all BCCI affairs. A district court judge issued the stay order after an application filed by Modi.

In response, a BCCI official told ESPNcricinfo their legal cell will challenge the order on Monday and clarify the "gross misrepresentation" of facts made to the court on Modi's behalf.

"The plaintiff (Modi) has prima facie shown the notice of the SGM has been issued without proper authority," the judge noted. "He has also shown that he shall suffer irreparable loss which cannot be compensated in terms of money by the report of the Disciplinary Committee being considered in an unauthorised manner. The balance of convenience thus lies in favour of the plaintiff. The defendants are thus hereby restrained from holding the SGM scheduled for 25.09.2013."

Modi's counsels Swadeep Hora and Abhishek Singh argued before district judge Ruby Alka Gupta that the SGM notice, circulated by BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel on September 2, was illegal since Patel's appointment was not in accordance with the BCCI constitution. Since only the president of the BCCI can fill up a mid-term vacancy of a principal office-bearer, Patel's appointment by a working committee meeting with the president having stepped aside was illegal, they contended.

The counsels said that since N Srinivasan had stopped discharging his duties as BCCI president on June 2 and Patel was appointed on June 10, the notice of SGM "issued 'on the instructions' of the President. The said notice is thus stated to be illegal, non-est and contrary to the rules and regulations of the BCCI."

The BCCI's disciplinary committee had found Modi guilty on eight different charges of "various acts of indiscipline and misconduct" after conducting an investigation that lasted almost three years. The charges, relating to irregularities in various financial and administrative matters of the IPL, including the sale of franchise and media rights, were pressed by the BCCI in 2010 soon after Modi's swift and dramatic exit from the league he founded.