‘Import’ of Mysore race club act upheld
The Supreme Court, in an interesting verdict, has found nothing illegal in the “import” of the Mysore Race Club Course Licensing Act, 1952 to Delhi to encourage the sport of horse racing and regulate the Race Course, a famous landmark of the national capital from which even the Prime Minister’s official residence 7-Race Course Road draws its name.
The Union government had “extended” the provisions of Mysore Race Club Act to Delhi in 1984 to regulate, monitor, control and encourage horse racing in the national capital, which then was a Union Territory and the Lt. Gov. was given full authority to frame the requisite rules in this regard.
“For this purpose, licences are issued subject to certain conditions. The compliance with the licence conditions is inevitable for renewal of the licences as well as ‘significant’ to avoid any penalty under the Act,” a bench of Justices D.K. Jain and A.R. Dave said while holding that the L-G was also empowered to frame the norms for enhanced licence fee.
“It is also relevant to note that an institution of the size of the Race Course should not cloak their objections to an increase in the rate of the licence fee and present them as a challenge to the constitutionality of the sections under which it is imposed,” apex court said while rejecting Club’s appeal against the Delhi high court judgment approving two notifications issued by the L-G for fixing and enhancing of the fee. In the first notification of 1985, the fee was fixed at `2,000 per day and `500 per day for arranging “wagering or betting” on horses. In 2001, after amending the rules, the fee was enhanced to `20,000 and `5,000 respectively.
Post new comment