Add retired SC judge, remove Jaitely and Amin from panel: Modi

At the second hearing of the disciplinary committee here tonight, Modi's lawyers again debated the on the recusal issue.

"The core issue of recusal of two members from the panel was debated. Our lawyers argued the case. The BCCI will be allowed to come out with a rejoinder," Modi's counsel Mehmood Abdi told reporters after the hearing which lasted close to three-and-a-half hours.
Abdi said that next meeting of the committee will be held on August 1 in New Delhi at 7:00pm.

"The meeting has been scheduled for a Sunday considering that the Parliament session is going on and taking into account the convenience of the lawyers," Abdi said.

At the meeting the Modi lawyers sought a number of documents from the BCCI related to the IPL and the Board's meetings.
Abdi said the issue of recusal will hopefully be sorted out at the next meeting.

"A retired Supreme Court judge must be there in the committee. We have grave concern about the BCCI's stance. If they have already decided then what's the point in all their meetings? Whosoever is doing this is hurting BCCI's cause more," Abdi had said before going into the meeting.

Modi again skipped the disciplinary committee meeting but Abdi was also of the view that his client's absence would not affect the proceedings.

"In the last meeting we had given reason to the BCCI about his (Modi) absence and the Board has accepted that. We feel, his absence won't affect the proceedings because I am here to represent him. It will be decided if he can come later depending on the situation," Abdi said.

The three-member disciplinary panel, comprising Amin, Jaitley and Jyotiraditya Scindia, last met on July 16 and allowed Modi to be represented by his lawyers.

The exception was made after Modi's second counsel Venkatesh Dhond explained that the charges against the administrator were of a serious nature and complex legal issues were involved, particularly in relation to interpretation of contract documents.

BCCI said Modi had asked for some documents and after a lot of argument it agreed to provide them considering that it would be used to prepare and present the defence of the suspended IPL commissioner.

"Mr Lalit K Modi has moved an application dated 23.7.2010 seeking production of certain documents from BCCI. Objections have been filed on behalf of BCCI by its counsel, Mr PR Raman. BCCI also gave a details information about the documents which Modi has asked for to prepare and present his case," BCCI said in a release which describes the proceedings of the meeting.

"The documents which Mr Modi has asked for inter alia are copies of the minutes of the Governing Council dated 26.4.2010 , copy of the minutes of the Governing Council meeting dated 25.6.2010, copies of the minutes of the meeting of the Special General Body dated 3.7.2010 along with list of members present, agendas for the meeting of the Governing Council dated 26.4.2010 and 25.6.2010. He has also asked for a copy of the amended agreement dated 25.6.2010 executed between BCCI and Sony MSM.

"The BCCI has filed its objections to the production of these documents. However, after some arguments by the parties, the BCCI has provided to the counsel of Mr Lalit Modi the minutes of the meeting of the Governing Council dated 26.4.2010, the relevant extracts in relation to the Show cause notices issued to Mr Lalit Modi in the minutes of the Governing Council dated 25.6.2010 and the Special General Meeting dated 3.7.2010," the release added.

The BCCI said the details of the proceedings also include the agreement between BCCI and World Sports Group (India).
"The extract of the minutes of the meeting of the Governing Council dated 25.6.2010 also relate to the cancellation of the agreement between BCCI and WSG(India).

"The minutes and the agenda items which form a part of the extracts having been given to the Counsel for Mr Modi. No further orders are required to be passed by the Committee on this count," the release said.

BCCI said they agreed to provide a copy of the amended agreement between them and Sony MSM, provided its contents shall be used only for the purposes of this enquiry and won't be divulged to Media.

"Mr. Modi has also sought a copy of the amended agreement between BCCI and Sony MSM. His counsel argued that this agreement is relevant for the purposes of his preparation of his defence in the main case as also the application for recusal filed by him," the BCCI release said.

"The BCCI has agreed to provide a copy of this agreement to the counsel for Mr Modi on the condition that this document and its contents shall be used only for the purposes of this enquiry and the proceedings arising out of this enquiry and for no other purposes.
"The reason for this secrecy is that in the agreement signed by Sony - MSM contains a confidentiality clause and a limited waiver has been given to BCCI to limit the use of this document for Mr Modi only for the purposes of this enquiry.

"BCCI has requested the counsel of Mr Modi to file an undertaking that this document will not be used for any other purpose but only for the purpose of this enquiry. The counsel for Mr Modi, Mr Venkatesh Dhond has agreed to this condition.

"He undertakes before us that this document will be used only for the purposes of this enquiry and the proceedings arising out of it. More particularly it will not be given to either the media or any other entity," the release said.

On being asked in the meeting when can Modi appear before the committee, his counsel said that currently he would be available on video conference only.

"Mr PR Raman, Counsel for BCCI has filed certain additional documents which are taken on record. At this stage, Mr Raman points out that Counsels of Mr Modi were to indicate possible dates of his convenience for Mr Modi's presence before the committee.

"To this Mr Dhond states that because of Mr Modi's security concerns he would not be able to give any definite date and as presently advised, Mr Modi would only be available through Video conferencing.

"He further informs that if situation with regard to threat perception changes he would make himself available to the committee. We only record this statement and saying nothing more on this," BCCI said in the release.

During the meeting, both the parties agreed not to discuss any contentious issue with the media.

"At the commencement of hearing, it was pointed to both BCCI's counsel and Mr Modi's counsel that several statements have been appearing in the Media regarding proceedings of this enquiry. Some of the comments have been attributed "sources".

"On the last hearing, it was agreed and both parties were informed that the committee members would under no circumstances be speaking to the Media and that their orders would be put up on the website of BCCI/IPL.

"The committee will only speak through its orders and statements attributed to the committee or about its present or possible orders other than what the committee states would be entirely unauthorised.

"The committee requested all persons to exercise utmost restraint while commenting outside in relation to proceedings before the committee," the release said.