New Delhi, July 1 -- The Supreme Court allowed ex-IPL chairman Lalit Modi to pursue civil remedies against BCCI for payment of penalty under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) to the tune of over Rs.10 crore. The order was passed by a bench of justices PS Narasimha and R Mahadevan on a petition filed by Modi against a Bombay high court decision of December 19, 2024 refusing to entertain his writ petition holding that a writ petition is not maintainable against BCCI. The bench said, "BCCI has been held to be 'state' for functional purposes related to cricket. For recoveries, it cannot be equivalent to state." The penalty was imposed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against BCCI, Modi and other office bearers alleging FEMA violation in the remittances made by BCCI for staging the 2009 IPL season in South Africa. An amount of Rs.10.65 crore was imposed on Modi while varying amounts were imposed against other office bearers. BCCI was slapped with penalty of over Rs.82 crore. Modi was then IPL chairman and BCCI vice-president. Modi's lawyer, advocate Vikas Mehta submitted that this was a case of discrimination by BCCI which had indemnified the penalty against BCCI secretary N Srinivasan and treasurer MP Pandove, while refusing him the same benefit. "Why have they denied it to you. Is it personal," the bench asked Mehta to which he replied, "Yes. It is personal." Mehta cited Rule 34 of the Rules and Regulations to Memorandum of Association of BCCI under which the Board is under an obligation to indemnify the office bearers out of the board's funds against all losses and expenses incurred by them during the discharge of their official duty. He also pointed out that the decision to shift the IPL matches to South Africa was a "collective" decision of BCCI and Modi was discharging his official duties as BCCI vice-president and IPL chairman....