High Court rules in favour of Indian board

Jagmohan Dalmiya: granted a reprieve by the High Court ruling © Getty Images Enlarge

In a complete turnaround of the earlier verdict passed by a single judge of the Chennai High Court, a division bench of the same court has ruled that the Indian board was completely justified in cancelling the tender process for telecast rights.

In their ruling, the two-member bench of Chief Justice Markandey Katju and Justice FM Ibrahim stated that the board was entirely within its rights in cancelling the rights awarded to Zee Telefilms. Instead, it hit out at the earlier verdict of Justice Sivasubramaniam, who had termed the cancellation improper and illegal, and had criticised Jagmohan Dalmiya for his role in the issue.

Calling the remarks against Dalmiya "scathing and vituperative", the ruling said: "In our opinion, these findings are based on mere suspicion, surmise and conjecture, and hence cannot be sustained. He [Justice Sivasubramaniam] could have dismissed the writ petition without making any observations on this issue."

The earlier ruling had lashed out at the Indian board, and had stated that Zee could seek damages in a civil court. It had also directed the board to ask for fresh tenders, and had allowed both Zee and ESPN-Star to apply.

However, according to The Times of India, the two-member bench justified the cancellation by saying that the board hadn't finalised any contract with Zee, a fact which Zee had also admitted to. "There was nothing wrong in the BCCI holding negotiations with the first two highest bidders [Zee and ESPN-Star]. The BCCI was well within its rights to cancel the tender process as the decision was taken in a compelling situation." The bench also allowed the board to challenge the earlier verdict, but dismissed Zee's demand that the contract be allotted to it.