Cricket World Cup 2023 | Allahabad HC Issues Notice To BCCI, UOI On PIL Against Ticket Price Disparities For Matches In Lucknow

Dealing with a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea highlighting concerns about price disparities in tickets for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 matches to be held at Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow, the Allahabad High Court today issued notices to the Union of India, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), State Of Uttar Pradesh, online ticketing platform BookMyShow and others.

Finding prima facie substance in the PIL plea, a bench of Justice Attau Rahman Masoodi and Justice Om Prakash Shukla issued notices and posted the matter for hearing on October 19.

The PIL plea, filed by one Vipul Tripathi, through advocate Piyush Pathak, has alleged arbitrariness in fixing ticket prices for ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 Cricket matches (to be played at Lucknow International Stadium) in contravention of the principles of reasonableness and fairness.

The primary challenge has been made to the decision of the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) to fix the base price of Rs. 499 for all four out of five Cricket matches (to be played between October 12 and November 3 in Lucknow) except for the match between India and England (scheduled for October 29) which is fixed at Rs 3250 onwards.

Terming the alleged discrepancy in the ticket prices as ‘highly illegal and arbitrary’, the PIL plea further states that in the month of September 2023, the price for the India-England match was fixed at a price of Rs 1500 but now the same has been increased to Rs. 3250 despite the fact that the tickets aren’t up for sale as yet.

Contending that the BCCI exercises enormous public duties and State functions as it exercises total control over the players, umpires and other officers, the PIL plea submits thus:

“…for the first time the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 is being hosted in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, and the people who belong to economically weaker section are compelled to purchase tickets at high rates (more than Rs 499) for their watching their own country's team…whereas rest of the matches are being sold at Rs 499 onwards and this discrimination and arbitrary act of the Opp-Parties are violating the Article 14 of the Constitution of India and, therefore, interference by this Hon'ble Court is expedient for the ends of justice.”

The petitioner has further argued that the BCCI has not adopted any policy or criteria for fixing the price of the match ticket for ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 at Lucknow and hence, it is required to summon the policy/criteria for fixing the amount of match tickets.

Against this backdrop, the PIL plea seeks a direction to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to fix and revise the base price (Rs. 499) of the ticket of the upcoming Cricket match between India and England (scheduled for October 29) according to Rule 24 (10) of Rules and Regulation of BCCI.

It further seeks direction to the BCCI to review and amend the ticket pricing policies for Cricket World Cup matches to be played at the stadium and make the policy more transparent.