The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) got a setback from the Bombay High Court on Thursday, March 19, 2022. The Bombay High Court has set aside the arbitral order that the Indian Premier League (IPL) of World Sport Group India (WSGI) Pvt Ltd has been granted by BCCI for all regions of the Rest of the World (RoW) except the Indian subcontinent. ) was upheld. The arbitral order allowed the BCCI to keep an amount exceeding Rs 850 crore in an escrow account.
A Single Bench of Justice Burgess P Colabawala passed the order on an arbitration petition filed by WSGI. The petition sought quashing of the order of the Arbitration Tribunal. The Arbitration Tribunal had passed the order on July 20, 2020. The arbitration tribunal consisted of former Supreme Court judge Justice Sujata Manohar and Justice Mukundakam Sharma and Justice SS Nijjar. In the order, Justice SS Nijjar had disagreed with Justice Sujata Manohar and Justice Mukundakam Sharma.
WSGI had challenged the BCCI’s order canceling the second Media Rights License Agreement (MRLA) of the petitioner. The petitioner was given the IPL media rights for RoW from 2009 to 2017. The Arbitration Panel had accepted BCCI’s contention that the MRLA was part of a fraudulent overall transaction.
BCCI in November 2007 for 10 years (2008 to 2017) IPL Tenders were invited for obtaining licenses for media rights. The tender included media rights for the Indian subcontinent in two categories. This included India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives.
The second category was that of RoW. Although WSGI won the bid, it was not a broadcaster and was only a media rights dealer. Hence it entered into a pre-bid agreement with Multi-Screen Media (MSM) Satellite (Singapore). MSM had a broadcast network in India.
High Court Said that the dispute between BCCI and MSM arose in the first season of IPL and thereafter. The deal was canceled by the BCCI in 2009. WSGI challenged the decision before the Arbitration Tribunal in 2010. In July 2020, the panel upheld the decision of the BCCI with a majority. After this WSGI took refuge in the High Court.