Bombay HC to pass order on Modi's plea tomorrow

Bombay High Court will pass order tomorrow on suspended IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi's petition challenging disciplinary proceedings initiating against him by the BCCI.

The case was mentioned before the division bench headed by Justice B H Marlapalle on Wednesday (July 14) morning.

Modi had sought an independent "outside" body for conducting inquiry instead of the present disciplinary panel of Arun Jaitley, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Chirayu Amin, IPL's interim Chairman.

Putting forward Modi's argument, his lawyer Virag Tulzhapurkar told the court that his client can't be judged by the disciplinary committee as it would be biased against him.

However, countering the argument, the bench panel of BCCI insisted at the court that the 30- member general body decides the disciplinary committee, which Modi had accepted during his tenure as the President.

BCCI's lawyer, A.Sundaram argued that the High Court could not hear this petition as the Cricket Board was a society and this was its internal matter.

The committee will be meeting on July 16 and wants Modi to appear before it.u00a0The court's orders would be passed a day ahead of the meeting.

The bench also called the petition filed by Modi as a "highly irresponsible" one.

The court said there are several cases pending before it highlighting the huge backlog of cases.

One of the lawyers for BCCI said that Modi's allegations were "fanciful".u00a0 Justice Marlapalle said, "In general the game of cricket has become fanciful", evoking laughter in the court room.

Modi's counsel led by Mehmood Abdi, however, preferred not to comment on Wednesday's court proceedings.

"Judgment of order and argument is reserved for tomorrow," said Abdi while leaving the court premises.