Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Why dues were not recovered from BCCI, the court asks state govt' that was published in Newsband

Why dues were not recovered from BCCI, the court asks state govt

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court asked the Maharashtra Government to state reasons for not recovering dues from Board of Control For Cricket in India (BCCI) which had enjoyed the police security provided during the IPL matches but not paid for it. The dues were not paid even though two years had passed. The dues were to the tune of Rs 10 crore. These IPL matches had taken place at the D Y Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai in 2010 and 2011.

Justice A M Khanwilkar and Justice A P Bhangale gave a hearing to this case. The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed by a BJP activist Santosh Pachlag.  He had requested the High Court to direct the government to recover the dues from BCCI. The bench found it funny that the state government was providing police security even after not getting the arrears. The state lawyers tried to convince the judges that Rs 10 crore was a small amount as compared to the state revenue outlays. But the Judges refused to be fooled and stuck to the point that 10 crore was substantially a big amount.

 The BCCI did argue that the police security was sought by the owners of the IPL teams and stadium and not the BCCI, but the court was not convinced. The judges commented that BCCI was a very rich organization and that it should not have found any problem in paying the amount.

The court has now issued notices to the concerned D Y Patil Stadium management and the franchise owners and it has ordered the state government to recover the dues from BCCI before the next IPL begins in April and if they fail to do so no police security will be provided to them.  

The lawyer representing the state said that the government has initiated the recovery process and that BCCI has requested to reduce the rates.

The next hearing will be on March 26, 2013.