SC Declines Swamy’s Plea To Halt Tender Auctioning Of IPL Media Rights [Read Affidavit]

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to grant stay on the ongoing process for auctioning of telecast rights of IPL cricket matches for next five years after Vinod Rai, chairman of court-appointed Committee of Administrators (COA) in BCCI matter, supported this tender process claiming it “better than the e-auction”.

Filing an affidavit, former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India Vinod Rai informed the bench headed by new Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra that the ongoing tender procedure is better.

In the two-page affidavit, filed pursuant to this court’s August 23 order, Rai said the process for IPL media rights for 2018-2022 was discussed and deliberated on May 20 meeting after which the committee of administrators had reached at a conclusion that the ongoing tender process is better than the e-auction.

The bench was hearing BJP leader Subramanian Swamy’s writ petition for an order for e-auctioning of the IPL media rights.

The bench allowed Swamy to file an application alleging the IPL auction's conflict of interest of Rajiv Shukla as IPL chairman & Star TV as bidder in the tender process.

In his petition, Swamy questioned the manner in which the rights worth Rs. 25,000 – 30,000 crore of Indian Premier League (IPL) were being distributed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

“There is a requirement of 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,” the plea stated.

According to Swamy, “the commercial interests and huge money is involved, amounting to Rs. 25,000 – 30,000 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 the revenue and prevent vested interest from making undue gains”. He sought the present practice should be discouraged.

Earlier, in another matter, the apex court had appointed a four-member committee of administrators headed by Vinod Rai to run the affairs of the BCCI and implement court-approved recommendations of the Justice RM Lodha panel on reforms on January 30, 2017.