Bombay HC questions Maharashtra government reasons for reducing IPL police protection fee

Bombay High Court criticizes Maharashtra government for reducing police protection fees for IPL matches, questioning rationale behind decision.

The Bombay High Court on Thursday (August 29, 2024) slammed the Maharashtra government’s decision to reduce the rate of police protection fees for Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 cricket matches. Hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by a Right to Information (RTI) activist from Mumbai’s Sakinaka, Anil Vedvyas Galgali, the High Court directed the State government to justify its decision to waive ₹14.8 crore in arrears owed by the IPL organisers for police protection provided during IPL matches since 2011 as the court could not find any rationale behind the move.  

Criticising the State’s decision, a Division Bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyay and Justice Amit Borkar observed, “What is this? What are you [government] doing? This is a fee not tax. You will keep on increasing the water tax from slum dwellers and then you waive off the fee for such cricket matches. The BCCI [Board of Control for Cricket in India] is one of the richest cricket associations globally. That’s how they become rich. Prime facie, we do not find any rationale of the State government to have not only reduced the fee to be paid by the organisers for the police deployment but also to have waive off the arrears against the organisers.” 

Mr. Galgali’s petition revealed that the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) still owes ₹14.82 crore for police protection during IPL matches held at Mumbai’s Wankhede and Brabourne stadiums between 2013 and 2018. As per two Government Resolutions (GR) issued in the years 2017 and 2018, the organisers had to pay around ₹66 lakh to ₹75 lakh per T20 and One-Day International match and ₹55 lakh for a Test match held in the two stadiums. Mr. Galgali’s plea stated that through a June 26, 2023 circular, the State government had reduced the security charges from ₹25 lakh to ₹10 lakh for IPL organisers with retrospective effect and this decision by the State to waive the arrears was causing a loss to the public exchequer. 

The petition, which attached information obtained under the RTI, said the Mumbai police had sent 35 reminder letters to the MCA seeking to recover the outstanding amount of ₹14,82,74,177. The RTI also revealed that in the last eight years the MCA had only paid fees of ₹1.40 crore charged towards the IPL cricket matches.  

The Bench directed Advocate General Birendra Saraf to assist the court in the case and the Additional Chief Secretary of State government to file an affidavit disclosing the total arrears to be paid by the MCA for organising the cricket matches since 2011 and what are the steps taken by the government to recover the dues. The Bench posted the matter for October 7 for next hearing.