25 November,2010 03:06 PM IST | | Agencies
The Supreme Court today deferred to the second week of January next year the hearing on a petition filed by suspended IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi seeking reconstitution of BCCI disciplinary committee probing allegations of financial irregularities against him.
A bench headed by Justice J M Panchal agreed with the plea of senior advocate Ram Jethmalani seeking adjournment after he said that the BCCI has decided to go into the jurisdictional aspects of the disciplinary committee.
Modi had contended that the disciplinary committee had no jurisdiction to go into the issue.
The disciplinary committee had on Tuesday decided not to go ahead with the proceedings against Modi till the issue of jurisdiction was decided.
Modi has approached the apex court seeking reconstitution of a BCCI-appointed three-member disciplinary committee, comprising Arun Jaitley, Chirayu Amin and Jyotiraditya Scindia, entrusted with the task to probe the allegations of financial irregularities against him.
He had approached the apex court after the Bombay High Court had on July 15 dismissed his plea seeking reconstitution of the disciplinary committee and challenging his suspension from the BCCI. Modi has sought removal of Jaitley and Amin from the committee, contending that they might be biased against him.
Modi's counsel Jethmalani had earlier told the apex court that he was only seeking its direction to the BCCI for appointment of a retired judge of the higher judiciary or any senior advocate as members of the disciplinary committee but not those from the cricket board.
Seeking reconstitution of the committee, Jethmalani had contended before the high court that BCCI Secretary N Srinivasan had launched "persecution" against his client on the basis of media reports and complaints made by rank outsiders and "meddlesome interlopers" who are neither members of the board nor administrators.
The BCCI, however, had contended before the high court that it was not possible to include members for the committee from outside.
But the apex court, while hearing the matter on October 21, had asked the BCCI to consider keeping away the three members of the disciplinary committee from the board's AGM at the time of voting on its report.
