Lalit Modi to wait longer for RCA election results

Former IPL czar Lalit Modi will have to wait longer to know the result of his bid to head the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) as the Supreme Court Monday posted further hearing of the matter to March 4. Elections to the cricketing body were held Dec 19, 2013.

A bench of Justice Anil R. Dave and Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar adjourned the hearing into the matter as senior counsel C.A.Sundaram told the court that it should hear the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) before the envelope containing the results of RCA election was unsealed.

As the court repeated its earlier observation whether BCCI thought Modi was so powerful that he would win the election, Sundaram, appearing for the apex cricketing body, said that is the ground reality.

As the apex court suggested that the envelope containing the results of the RCA election be opened and if Modi does not succeed then the plea of the BCCI would become infructuous, Sundaram contended that a person who has indulged in financial embezzlement and is under life ban by the BCCI can't even become its ordinary member, leave aside becoming its office bearer or that of its affiliate body.

The BCCI had September 2013 imposed a life ban on Modi for alleged irregularities when he headed the Indian Premier League (IPL) from 2008 to 2010.

In a shot at BCCI president N. Srinivasan, Modi's counsel Harish Salve said someone whose son-in-law was involved in a betting scandal could not decide who could contest. In return, Sundaram said that a person accused of embezzlement and having Irish citizenship can't contest elections of the cricketing body.

The apex court was to Monday open the envelope that contains the result and the report of Justice (retd.) N.M.Kasliwal, who was appointed by it, to supervise the conduct of the elections.

The court is hearing a plea by RCA's former secretary challenging the Rajasthan Sports Act, 2005, that was read by Modi's supporters in his favour to contest election for RCA president.

The BCCI too moved the court contending that in the wake of the life ban, Modi was barred from contesting elections to the cricketing body and his association with the cricketing body would affect the image of the popular sport.