Acting on a petition, the Bombay high court on Wednesday quashed an enforcement directorate (ED) notice issued to former BCCI president Shashank Manohar in the alleged Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema) violation during the 2009 IPL, when an account with $10 million was opened for holding the second edition of the IPL in South Africa.
“We are of the view that the material on record was sufficient to take the view that the petitioner himself was not in charge of and responsible for opening and operating the bank accounts involving receipts and remittances of foreign exchange to parties outside India,” observed the division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice M.S. Sanklecha.
The ED under the Fema, 1999, issued a showcause notice against Mr Manohar of penalty for the alleged violation of the Act during the period 2008 to 2011as the president of BCCI. This petition also challenged a communication dated June 6 this year calling the petitioner for a personal hearing.
In the complaint, the ED alleged that BCCI and its officers had violated the provisions of the Act by receiving or remitting foreign exchange to the tune of about `1,314 crore without seeking permission from the Reserve Bank of India, while conducting the second edition of the IPL, thus inviting penalty under Section 13 of the Act.
The court observed that the BCCI had set up the governing council for IPL with Lalit Modi as the chairman and a chief executive officer and other staff separately engaged to attend to day-to-day affairs of the IPL. It also noted that it was specifically resolved that IPL will have “a separate bank account to be opened by the treasurer, BCCI, N. Srinivasan, and the IPL governing council shall have a separate office”.