Supreme Court upholds Bombay HC directive to shift IPL out of Maharashtra

The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to interfere with an order of the Bombay high court directing the Maharashtra Cricket Association and the BCCI to shift out of the state all IPL matches to be held from May 1 onwards citing drought conditions in the state.

A bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justices R. Banumathi and Uday Lalit told senior counsel Abhishek Singhvi and P. Chidambaram, appearing for MCA and the Pune Cricket Association, that “the issue is whether you can waste water for the matches when the people are suffering”.

When the CJI asked counsel how much of water will be required for the matches, Mr Singhvi said that for matches to be played in Mumbai, about eight to 10 lakh litres will be required.

This was strongly disputed by counsel for the respondent, who as the petitioner in the high court had said 60 lakh litres would be required for the matches.

Mr Chidambaram said for the six matches in Pune only 4.80 lakh litres are required and only treated sewerage water would be used for the pitches and non-potable water for the toilets in the stadium.

Mr Chidambaram said in an affidavit that they has undertaken to use only treated sewage water.