The Himachal Pradesh HC issued notices to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA), state government and IPL team Kings XI Punjab on the issue of payment of expenses incurred on providing security cover for the matches played in Dharamshala International Cricket Stadium.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir and Justice Tarlok Chauhan passed these orders on a PIL petition.
The petitioner Vinay Sharma submitted before the Court that the BCCI and HPCA have not paid a single rupee to the state government for security charges and other legal dues such as taxes since 2010 when the first IPL match was played at HPCA stadium, Dharamshala.
He said that at least 9 IPL matches and an international match have been played at the stadium and one more international match is scheduled to be played on October 17. He also informed the court that more than 1,500 police personnel were being deployed at Dharamshala for more than a week to provide security during the match and the government was spend at least Rs 70 lakh to Rs 1 crore per match for security from taxpayers’ money.
He also submitted that the government had earlier spent around Rs 10 crore on security during previous matches, but did not receive anything from HPCA. He said that the cricket body was earning crores of rupees from TV rights, letting out of stadium for matches, from IPL franchisee and other sources, but was not paying legal dues to the government.
He cited the examples of Punjab Police, Mumbai Police and Madhya Pradesh Police recovering security expenses from respective cricket bodies and pleaded for directions to HPCA to pay legal dues.
The Court directed the respondents to file their replies within four weeks and posted the matter for December 9.
