New Delhi. The Supreme Court has refused to direct the BCCI to administer the e-auctioning of allocating the media rights of the Indian Premier League.
The plea made by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy was not considered by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice DY Chadrachud.
“It is a requirement that non-discriminatory and transparent method with the best international practices must be adopted for distribution of the valuable media rights so as to ensure the maximum revenue in the larger national interest,” Swamy’s plea had said.
According to senior advocate Parag Tripathi, who was representing the Committee of Administrators (COA), the ongoing tender process was a better option as all the bidders put their best bid in a sealed envelope to get the media rights.
However, Swamy said that he wanted to file an interim application, highlighting the alleged collusion and conflict of interest on behalf of a BCCI functionary who also runs a news channel. This plea was allowed by the court.
“Huge money is involved amounting to Rs 25000-30000 crore in the valuable rights associated with the game of cricket in India which makes it mandatory to have the auction process robust, completely transparent, in order to maximise revenue and prevent vested interests from making undue gains,” Swamy had claimed. –PTI
