A bench of Justices JM Panchal and HL Gokhale held constitution of three-member committee -- Arun Jaitley, Chirayu Amin and Jyotiraditya Scindiya – inquiring allegations of irregulaties against Modi as valid.
The Court rejected the contention of Modi that he had apprehension that the members of the disciplinary committee –particularly Jaitley and Amin -- could be biased against him, as they had participated in a Special General Body meeting of the BCCI which decided to take action against him.
“The petitioner (Modi) was alleging institutional bias against the members of the Committee, which was only on the basis of their participation in the meetings of the first respondent society (BCCI). In this way, institutional bias can be alleged against every member of the Governing Council of IPL and the General Body of the first respondent which cannot be accepted.”
“The petitioner may have an apprehension, but it is not possible to say from the material on record that he was facing a real danger of bias. We cannot presume that the three member committee will not afford the petitioner a fair hearing, or that it will not render unbiased findings,” the court said.
Saying the Committee is “validly” constituted, the Court upheld the decision of the Bombay High Court passed on July 15, last year, which had rejected the Modi’s petition. Writing the judgment, Justice Gokhale said Modi cannot dictate terms as to who should be the members of the Committee.
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