High court refuses to ban IPL matches

The Delhi High Court Wednesday refused to ban Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket matches, saying the apex court had already dealt with the matter.

A division bench of Chief Justice D. Murugesan and Justice Jayant Nath also refused to hear the issue related to monitoring the probe into the IPL spot fixing case.

The bench, however, agreed to hear another issue - that IPL be segregated from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

The court adjourned the matter for Aug 23 asking the advocate to amend the petition, limiting it to segregation of IPL from BCCI. It said the Supreme Court had refused to ban the IPL and it cannot interfere in the apex court order.

"Supreme Court has already dealt with the issue of banning the IPL and monitoring of probe... Counsel is also not pressing for the above prayers and for another prayer of the plea seeking segregation of IPL from BCCI, counsel to amend the prayer," said the bench.

The Supreme Court Tuesday turned down a PIL seeking ban on the IPL tournament and directed a one-man commission probing spot fixing to submit its report within 15 days. It asked the BCCI to act upon its findings according to its rules.

Petitioner NGO Association for Social and Humanitarian Affairs said: "The IPL's model seems to be designed specifically to suit the requirements of the mafia to quickly and efficiently churn huge sums of money using the routes of hawala."

"The strategic time out of two to three minutes while the game is being played is misused as being the only opportunity for interactions between the players and the bookies to influence the result of the match and session and thereby cheat the nation," the petition said.

The case came to light with Delhi Police arresting three players in a post-midnight operation in Mumbai May 16 for spot fixing in IPL matches for payments of up to Rs.60 lakh just for giving away a pre-determined number of runs in an over.