New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday declined to interfere with the decision of the BCCI to have public auction through sealed covers for award of media rights for Indian Premier League (IPL) matches for next five years from 2018 IPL season.
A bench of chief justice Dipak Misra and justices A.M. Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud refused to order e-auction as sought by BJP MP Subramanian Swami taking note of the affidavit of the Committee of Administrators that e-auction was not suitable as it would fetch less revenue than through public auction in sealed cover.
The CJI told Swami that the apex court has appointed the COA and it is headed by former CAG Vinod Rai, who would be in a better position to decide.
Swami said media rights should be done through an e-auction. “The current process is a sham and we want to ensure that e-auction is opted as was done in the auctioning of coal blocks. An e-auction was sought so that the process could be made more transparent.”
Senior counsel Abhishek Singhvi appearing for the CEO, BCCI and Parag Tripathi for the COA strongly opposed the petition and said the COA at its meeting had already approved the auction in which there are now 20 bidders.
They said if e-auction were followed there would be a revenue loss of Rs 400 crores a year and that was the reason, the COA had consciously decided against it.
Counsel submitted that the on-going tender process was a better option as all the bidders put their best bid in a sealed envelope to get the media rights. This process would fetch more money than through e-auction, Taking note of the submissions and the affidavit, the Bench said it would not interfere. In his writ petition, Swami said that the amount involved in the award of IPL media rights was to the tune of Rs 30,000 crore and the issue should not be decided in an opaque manner. 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, it said.
