Bombay HC Questions Justification To Reduce Police Cover Dues For Cricket Matches

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday, raised serious questions regarding the Maharashtra government’s decision to retrospectively reduce and waive police protection charges for cricket matches held in the state since 2011.

The move, which aimed to lower security fees for cricket events, was challenged in a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by RTI activist Anil Galgali. The state’s decision was based on financial considerations and claims that the security charges in Maharashtra were higher than those in other states, but the court found the rationale questionable.

A division bench, led by Chief Justice D.K. Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar, expressed concerns over the retrospective nature of the decision. “Is the security expenditure incurred in a match held in Mumbai the same as the one held in Lucknow? What is this justification? Something is amiss,” remarked Chief Justice Upadhyaya. The bench questioned how the state could apply the same security fee model to cricket matches held in vastly different cities, considering the varying scale of security needs.

The Maharashtra government’s representative, senior advocate Milind Sathe, explained that the decision to lower the fees was prompted by complaints from cricket associations, which argued that the fees charged in Maharashtra were significantly higher than in other states.

The court, however, pointed out that the organisers of cricket events were aware of the security charges at the time the matches were held, as the government had issued a resolution detailing these charges. The court emphasized that the organisers had hosted the matches with full knowledge of the fees and that revising the charges retrospectively after a decade was not appropriate.

The PIL filed by Galgali also highlighted that the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) had not paid the outstanding arrears of ₹14.82 crore for the police protection provided during IPL matches from 2013 to 2018 at the Wankhede and Brabourne stadiums. According to the government resolutions issued in 2017 and 2018, the organisers were required to pay between ₹55 lakh and ₹75 lakh per match depending on the type of event.

However, a government resolution in June 2023 reduced the charges to ₹25 lakh for T20 and One-Day matches. The retrospective application of this new fee structure from 2011 effectively waived the arrears owed by the MCA.

The court noted that, despite multiple demands from the police for payment, including 35 letters sent to the MCA, no serious effort had been made to recover the dues. As a result, Galgali sought a court order to quash the June 2023 circular to the extent that it applied retrospectively and to direct the police to take steps to recover the arrears with interest.

The case has been posted for further hearing on December 17, 2024, with directions for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) to file affidavits in response to the petition.

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