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Thursday, Feb 24, 2005

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Cricket series: court to frame interim arrangement for telecast today

By A. Subramani

CHENNAI, FEB. 23. The Madras High Court is to frame an interim arrangement tomorrow for the telecast of the India-Pakistan cricket series, scheduled to start on March 8.

Justice K.P. Sivasubramaniam, hearing a writ petition from the Zee Telefilms Limited (ZTL), challenging the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decision to abort the tender process for telecast rights, said this today at the end of marathon arguments. Besides considering the submissions of counsel for the ZTL, BCCI, ESPN-Star and the former BCCI chairman, Jagmohan Dalmiya, the Judge would now take into consideration the production-cum-marketing offers of the ZTL and the ESPN. Both have offered to produce the entire series and deposit all the proceeds in the BCCI kitty in return for mutually agreed production costs.

Indicating that he would require 10 to 15 days to decide the issue in its entirety, as he needed to peruse a large number of case laws and authorities by senior advocates, Mr. Justice Sivasubramaniam said he would pass an interim order tomorrow and come out with a detailed final order later.

Senior counsel for ZTL, P.S. Raman, continuing his reply argument, sought to know why the BCCI was not accepting the ZTL's offer, as per which the ZTL would produce and market the coming India-Pakistan series and deposit the entire revenue in BCCI accounts. Flaying the "nonchalant" response of the BCCI, the senior advocate asked, "Why are they refusing my offer? Is it simply because it was the ZTL which was making it?"

He said the decision of the Board to award the contract to the ZTL was changed "at the behest of one man, Mr. Dalmiya," who gave only an incomplete picture to the Marketing Committee and the Working Committee of the Board and insisted that the BCCI had no option other than cancelling the entire tender process.

Senior counsel for the BCCI, T.R. Rajagopalan, said the writ jurisdiction of the High Court under Article 22 of the Constitution could not be invoked in contract-related matters. "Because they offered the first highest bid, the ZTL claims that the contract should not go to anyone else." Only if the Constitutional rights of citizens or the statutory rights of individuals are affected by the decisions would writ lie against private parties, he added.

Mere allegation of mala fide, bereft of material evidence, is not enough, he said, adding that without the approval of the designated committees no decision could be enforced. While he prayed for liberty to proceed with the telecast arrangements of the coming series, Mr. Raman said the ZTL could be asked to cover the series and deposit the proceeds with the BCCI accounts. Senior counsel for the ESPN-Star, Vijay Narayan, said his client too had an offer, which the court could take into consideration while passing orders.

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