Mumbai: PIL Challenges Govt Circular Reducing Police Security Charges For MCA For IPL

Maharashtra government’s decision to reduce the charges fixed for police protection provided to the Indian Premier League (IPL) T-20 cricket matches with a retrospective effect from the year 2011 has been challenged before the Bombay High Court.

A public interest litigation has been filed by RTI activist Anil Galgali states that the police is yet to recover arrears of Rs14.82 crore from the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) for the IPL matches held at Wankhede and Brabourne stadiums from 2013 to 2018. 

The state government had used a circular on June 26, 2023 reducing the security charges from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 10 lakh with retrospective effect. 

On Wednesday, the plea was heard by a bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar which directed the additional government pleader Jyoti Chavan to submit a translated copy of the Marathi circular on Thursday.

Questioning the circular having retrospective effect from 2011, the plea states this would reduce the outstanding arrears from the MCA. The plea terms the government’s decision as “illegal, arbitrary and unconstitutional”. “This decision was taken to benefit the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) but the same was causing a loss to the public exchequer,” it adds.

The Mumbai police, in 2021, had raised a demand of Rs14.82 crores to the MCA for providing police protection for the games organised between 2013 and 2018 at the Wankhede and Brabourne stadiums.

Galgali obtained information under the Right to Information Act, which stated that the police have so far sent 35 letters to the MCA seeking for the dues to be paid. However, apart from this (sending letters), the police too have taken no serious effort to recover the dues, the petition said. “Because of the lackadaisical and easy going attitude of the police department and a recalcitrant attitude of the MCA, there is a loss of Rs 14.82 crore to the state exchequer,” the plea claims. 

The IPL T-20 games are purely a commercial venture and are played between privately owned franchises and not national or international teams. The government and police were setting a bad precedent by not taking the matter seriously and not making sincere efforts to recover the dues.

The plea urged the court to quash the 2023 government circular to the extent of having retrospective effect from 2011, thereby binding on the recovery of the Rs 14.82 crore arrears from the MCA.

The plea urged that the court issue direction to the police department to take appropriate steps to recover the arrears along with appropriate interest.