Mumbai, Dec. 18: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Saturday authorised its president Shashank Manohar to take a decision on whether to challenge the Bombay High Court’s decision to uphold the stay on the termination of contracts of Indian Premier League (IPL) franchisees Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab in the Apex Court.
The decision was taken at the BCCI’s Working Committee meeting which took place here on Saturday. “The Working Committee has authorised the President to take a decision on filing an appeal in the Supreme Court,” BCCI sources mentioned.
On December 14, Justice S.J. Vazifdar dismissed an appeal filed by BCCI challenging the stay granted to Rajasthan Royals by the arbitrator, appointed by both the parties to resolve their dispute, and permitted the IPL franchisee to participate in the IPL-4 auction.
A day later, the two-member Division Bench of Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Anoop Mohata upheld the order of its single bench, Justice Vazifdar, to stay the termination of Kings XI Punjab saying that the entire basis of the letter of termination issued by the BCCI to the Mohali franchise was “erroneous and flawed”.
The Indian cricket board had on October 10 terminated the franchisee agreement of Royals — winner of the inaugural edition of the IPL in 2008 — and Kings XI Punjab alleging that the teams had committed breach of the contract by having changes in its corporate structure without consent.
Meanwhile, in another development, the sources have mentioned that the Players’ Auction for the fourth edition of the Indian Premier League would be held as scheduled on January 8-9.