On May 31, 2018, the ED imposed a penalty of Rs 10.65 crore on Modi, Rs 82.66 crore on the BCCI, Rs 11.53 crore on its former chairman N. Srinivasan, Rs 9.72 crore on former BCCI treasurer M.P. Pandove, and Rs 7 crore on the State Bank of Travancore (now merged with SBI).
MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court has imposed a penalty of Rs 1 lakh on Lalit Modi, the founder of the Indian Premier League (IPL), for filing a “frivolous” and “entirely misconceived” petition.
A division bench comprising Justice Mahesh Sonak and Justice Jitendra Jain observed that, despite the 2005 Supreme Court ruling in Zee Telefilms Ltd. & Anr. vs. Union of India & Ors, which explicitly held that the BCCI does not qualify as a “State” under the definition provided in Article 12 of the Indian Constitution, Lalit Modi filed this frivolous petition in 2018, seeking writ directives against the BCCI to pay a Rs 10.65 crore penalty levied on him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in May 2018 for violations under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).
“In cases concerning the petitioner’s alleged indemnification for penalties imposed by the ED, there is no involvement of any public function. Therefore, no writ can be issued to the BCCI for this purpose. Furthermore, the reliefs sought are entirely baseless. The adjudication authority under FEMA has imposed a penalty of Rs 10.65 crore on the petitioner, who now seeks a writ of mandamus directing the BCCI to pay this amount to the Enforcement Directorate. Such a mandamus cannot be issued,”
the judges stated in their order.
It is notable that on May 31, 2018, the ED imposed a penalty of Rs 10.65 crore on Modi, Rs 82.66 crore on the BCCI, Rs 11.53 crore on its former chairman N. Srinivasan, Rs 9.72 crore on former BCCI treasurer M.P. Pandove, and Rs 7 crore on the State Bank of Travancore (now merged with SBI).
The petition argued that the BCCI, under its by-laws, was obligated to indemnify Modi, who served as its Vice President and Chairman of the IPL Governing Council during the relevant period.
The court ruled that the issue of indemnification did not involve any public function, rendering a writ against the BCCI unsustainable. It further emphasized that the relief sought was baseless since no writ of mandamus could compel the BCCI to pay the ED-imposed penalty on Modi.
While imposing costs, the court observed:
“This petition is frivolous. Consequently, we dismiss it with costs of ₹1,00,000, payable to Tata Memorial Hospital.”
Case Title: Lalit Modi vs BCCI and Others (Writ Petition 3077 of 2019)
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