In a relief to former BCCI president Shashank Manohar, the Bombay High Court today quashed and set aside a notice issued by Enforcement Directorate (ED) directing him to appear before the agency over allegations of foreign exchange violations in the 2009 IPL tournament held in South Africa.
A division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice M S Sancklecha, while quashing the ED notice, observed that ED had not considered the material placed by Manohar before it.
The ED, on June 6, 2013, had issued notice initiating adjudication proceedings against Manohar under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) regarding a bank account opened in South Africa by BCCI and IPL ahead of the cricketing event.
The agency had issued the notice asking the former BCCI president to appear before them, pursuant to a show cause notice sent earlier to Manohar.
"The agency had not considered the material placed by Manohar before it stating that he was not involved in the opening of the bank account and that he had advised the IPL governing council to inform the RBI before opening an account," the High Court bench said.
The bench directed the agency to reconsider the material submitted by Manohar and pass a reasoned order before issuing a notice asking him to appear.
On a request from Additional Solicitor General Kevic Setalvad, the court stayed its order for a period of four weeks.
According to ED, five crore dollars were transferred to the bank account in South Africa.
