HC dismisses PIL for govt take-over of BCCI

Madras High Court Bench here today dismissed a PIL seeking a direction to the Centre to take control of Indian cricket board and the IPL for alleged irregularities, saying there was no material to substantiate the charges and slammed it as a classic case of abuse of process of law.
"The PIL is a classic case of abuse of process of the court and law...This kind of PIL should not be encouraged by this court," a bench comprising Justice S.Rajeswaran and Justice T Mathivanan said in their hard hitting observation.
It was dismissing the PIL filed by city-based advocate V. Santhakumaresan, who sought a direction to the government to take over the management of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Indian Premier League in view of alleged irregularities including spot-fixing in the T-20 tournament.

He had also sought a CBI investigation into the charges.
Pulling up the petitioner, the court said: "Being a lawyer, the petitioner should have ascertained the facts. He has come to this court without any materials, excepting the newspaper reports to file the case."
The counsel for BCCI said that the petitioner was trying to sensationalise and seek publicity and it was against the guidelines for filing PIL in the courts.
The BCCI was a society registered Under the Tamilnadu Society Act. There was no genuine cause of action and the entire PIL was based on newspaper reports only. There was no legally acceptable material, the counsel said.

Petitioner's counsel W. Peter Ramesh Kumar contended that the Indian cricket team "should not be represented by a private registered society, which makes profit only to fill in the pockets of a few individuals.