Bombay High Court allows May 1 IPL match in Pune

The Bombay high court on Wednesday amended its own order of last week and allowed the BCCI to hold an Indian Premier League (IPL) match in Pune on May 1. Last week, the high court had directed that all IPL matches scheduled to be played post April 30 be shifted outside Maharashtra.

BCCI general manager (games development), Ratnakar Shetty, had, through senior counsel, Rafique Dada, moved an application before the division bench of Justice V.M. Kanade and Justice M.S. Karnik, requesting the court to permit BCCI to hold a match between Rising Pune Supergiants and Mumbai Indians on May 1.

Advocate Dada informed the court that as scheduled, the Rising Pune Supergiants team had home matches in Pune against Gujarat Lions on April 29 at 8 pm and against Mumbai Indians on May 1. He told the court that as per accepted international practice, there had to be a gap of two days between cricket matches in order to enable players and crew to travel and practise and also for shifting of television production equipment and so on. He argued that since the Pune team had a match with the Gujarat team on April 29 in Pune, it would not be possible to shift the venue of the match between RPS and Mumbai Indians in just one day.

“It would be humanly impossible to shift teams and equipment in one single day since there is a gap of only one day between the two matches,” argued advocate Dada, requesting the court to grant permission to play one match in Pune on May 1, as exception. Petitioner Loksatta Movement and Foundation of Democratic Reforms’ lawyer opposed the application saying that water level of all dams in Maharashtra had gone down further.

After hearing the arguments, the bench observed that though it had earlier directed that the venue of all IPL 2016 matches to be held post April 30 be shifted to other states, in this particular case, there was practical difficulty in shifting the venue of the match. “We are satisfied that it may not be possible for the said teams to shift their venue outside Maharashtra in one day. We are, therefore, of the view that taking into consideration the practical problems which may arise in shifting the venue of the match outside Maharashtra at such a short notice, by way of exception, we permit the applicant to hold IPL match between RPS and Mumbai Indians on May 1,” observed the bench, while granting the requisite permission.