IPL Police Deployment Costs: Bombay High Court Questions State's Rs 14 Crore Waiver

The Bombay High Court raised concerns on Thursday regarding the state's decision to waive Rs 14 crore owed by Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket organizers for police deployment from 2011 to 2018. The court questioned the justification behind this financial concession.

The division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar stated, "Prima facie, we do not find any rationale for the state not only reducing the payment for police deployment but also waiving the arrears." This remark followed their review of submissions in a public interest litigation (PIL) contesting a 2023 Government Resolution (GR) that retrospectively reduced fees for all IPL organizers dating back to 2011.

According to a report of TOI, the CJ, after dictating the order in open court, orally addressing the state through its pleader Jyoti Chavan, said, "What is this? What are you doing? You keep on increasing water charges even from slum dwellers. You know BCCI [Board of Control for Cricket in India] is the richest cricket association globally."

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When Chavan mentioned that organizers had raised concerns about rates in other states, the High Court responded orally, noting that the cost of living in Mumbai cannot be compared with other cities and highlighting that IPL matches in Mumbai are consistently sold out. The court directed the Maharashtra government's additional chief secretary (home) or another senior official to file an affidavit within two weeks to clarify the decision made last June. The next hearing is scheduled for October 7.

RTI activist Anil Galgali filed the PIL, challenging the GR dated June 26, 2023, which set the fees for deploying police forces at IPL matches. The GR specified that organizers would need to pay Rs 10 lakh per T20 match and Rs 25 lakh for one-day and Test matches organized by the MCA/BCCI.