Tendulkar fails on a legal wicket

Sachin Tendulkar has lost a case that he had filed against his former tax advisor. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) dismissed the case and declared Madhav Bhatkhande, the accused, not guilty of any professional misconduct, deception or cheating.

Tendulkar had filed a complaint that Bhatkhande had failed to repay a personal loan taken in 1996. However, Bhatkhande, who had advised Tendulkar on financial matters from 1989, had claimed that the loan was repayed against his professional fees that was due to him for the consultancy services rendered.

But once the work was completed and the bill submitted, Tendulkar had alleged that the fees being charged was too exorbitant and Tendulkar's lawyer, Harish Jagtiani, was quoted in Rediff as saying that it was "absolutely unreasonable".

Bhatkhande immediately approached the Bombay High Court in May 1999 for the recovery of his fees, while Tendulkar countered it by complaining to the ICAI. All that ended with yesterday's verdict by the ICAI.

Jagtiani refused to comment on the decision and said that he hadn't received the report, while SN Inamdar, Bhatkhande's cousel, was upbeat, and told The Indian Express, "We always expected it."