Dalmiya fails to get reprieve from civil court

Jagmohan Dalmiya has failed to get a reprieve from a civil court, which refused to restrain the BCCI disciplinary committee from summoning him in connection with the alleged misappropriation of the 1996 World Cup funds.

PK Sarkar, the chief judge of the City Civil Court in Kolkata, refused to stay the summons issued to Dalmiya by the BCCI disciplinary committee to appear before it at 1pm today following his alleged failure to reply to a showcause notice. The board has, however, deferred the disciplinary committee's proceedings against Dalmiya after he filed the suit challenging the summons.

The court directed the BCCI to file its written objection within two weeks to Dalmiya's suit, which challenged the legality and validity of the board's summons asking him to appear before the disciplinary committee. It gave Dalmiya another one week's time to file his reply to the written objections by the BCCI and would fix the matter for hearing thereafter.

Dalmiya, the former BCCI president, had filed the suit before the City Civil Court challenging the summons. In the suit, Dalmiya asked for an order to the BCCI management not to give effect to his suspension from attending BCCI meetings, and had also challenged the legality of the BCCI's summons asking him to appear before the disciplinary committee. The committee is headed by Sharad Pawar and includes Shashank Manohar and Chirayu Amin.

The BCCI had issued a showcause notice to Dalmiya, asking him to furnish details of transfer of Rs40 crore from an Indian Overseas Bank account in Bhawanipur to Cricket Association of Bengal between 1996 to 2005 when he was the president. After Dalmiya failed to reply to the notice, the BCCI debited the amount to CAB and also decided to withhold all subsidies to it.

Earlier, the board had alleged misappropriation of the 1996 World Cup funds by Dalmiya and filed an FIR at a Mumbai police station a few months ago.