Bombay High Court sets aside order directing BCCI to pay Rs 4800 crore to Deccan Chargers
The Bombay High Court bench of Justice G.S. Patel set aside an arbitrator’s order that directed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to pay over Rs 4800 crore to Deccan Chronicle Holding Ltd regarding a dispute for termination of the IPL franchise Deccan Chargers.The BCCI had challenged the July 2020 verdict asking it to pay Rs 4800 crore and subsequently challenged in the High Court.
Deccan Chargers, owned by Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited, was one of the eight franchises of the Indian Premier League. It had also won the 2009 edition of the IPL, under the captaincy of Adam Gilchrist.DC was one of the original eight teams in the IPL, which debuted in 2008 and was dissolved in 2012.
The dispute between the two is stated to have arisen in 2012 during the fifth season of IPL cricket. The bench set aside the 2020 award passed by the sole arbitrator, who was appointed in 2012, had reportedly awarded DCHL a compensation of Rs 4,814.67 crores plus 10% interest from 2012, in addition to costs, upon finding that the BCCI’s termination of the Deccan Chargers team from IPL was illegal.
So, the BCCI issued a show-cause notice in August 2012, in its process of terminating the contract. The case had gone into arbitration and BCCI landed in a bad situation. The BCCI challenged this arbitration award in the Bombay High Court. However, BCCI terminated the franchise in September 2012 followed by a notice alleging that the franchise had breached the BCCI code.Whereas the termination was stayed by the Bombay High Court in October that year after DHCL failed to submit a bank guarantee of Rs 100 crore. So DCHL then approached the Bombay High Court claiming that the termination was arbitrary. The High Court in September 2012 appointed retired Supreme Court Justice C K Thakker as the sole Arbitrator to decide the matter, who awarded a Rs 4800 crore verdict in favour of the now-defunct IPL team, last year.