HC extends stay to tender-process for IPL telecast rights

Mumbai, Jan 17 (PTI) The Bombay High Court today extendedthe stay to inviting of tenders for telecast rights of IndianPremier League (IPL) by BCCI till tomorrow.

Division bench of Justices P B Majmudar and A A Sayedextended the stay after World Sports Group (WSG) approached itchallenging a single bench order dismissing its plea againstBCCI''s decision to terminate its contract.

In June last year, the cricket board terminated WSG''scontract for overseas telecast rights alleging that WSG hadfraudulently entered into a contract with Multi Screen Media(MSM) Satellite.

"WSG was given telecast rights of all IPL matches byBCCI in January 2008. BCCI''s contract with WSG and WSG''scontract with MSM are independent of each other," WSG''scounsel Aspi Chinoy argued today.

The senior counsel further argued that what rankled withBCCI was the fact that Rs 425 crore was paid by MSM to WSG inaccordance with the contract. "BCCI wanted MSM to pay thatmoney to them directly," Chinoy said.

Opposing the appeal, senior counsel Rafiq Dada,appearing for BCCI, said, "The contract was terminated becauseof fraud and even the single bench order given by Justice S JVazifdar observes that prima facie there has been a fraud."

The division bench while adjourning the matter tilltomorrow asked WSG to clarify whether the two contractswere independent of each other.