Dalmiya gets a breather

In a breather for Jagmohan Dalmiya, a Kolkata court on Thursday directed the Board of Control for Cricket in India to postpone till August 22 its August 15 Disciplinary Committee meeting in Chennai, where the CAB president was to appear in connection with the PILCOM accounts issue.

City Civil Court chief judge P K Sarkar issued the directive after Dalmiya moved the court challenging the BCCI's summons to appear before its Disciplinary Committee on August 15.

The matter is due for hearing on August 22.

During the hearing, Dalmiya's counsel, Gitanath Ganguly, submitted that the BCCI's summons to his client to the August 15 meeting was against the principles of natural justice.

Earlier, Dalmiya challenged the BCCI's notice to appear before the committee, claiming that the Board's previous summons to appear on July 26 were challenged by him before the court and pending the petition the BCCI could not issue fresh summons.

The disciplinary committee is headed by Board president Sharad Pawar and includes Shashank Manohar and Chirayu Amin.

The BCCI had issued showcause notice to Dalmiya, asking him to furnish details of transfer of Rs 40 crore from an Indian Overseas Bank account in Bhawanipur to the Cricket Association of Bengal, of which he was the president between 1996 to 2005.

After Dalmiya failed to reply to the notice, the BCCI debited the amount to the CAB and decided to withhold all subsidies to it.

The Board had alleged misappropriation of 1996 World Cup funds by Dalmiya and filed an FIR at a Mumbai police station a few months ago.