The Supreme Court has directed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to pay a sum of Rs.100 crore to the Kochi Tuskers franchise owners if they are looking for a stay of an arbitral award against it in favour of Kochi Cricket Pvt. Ltd.
The appeal by the Kochi franchise owners was heard by a bench of Justices AK Goel and Indu Malhotra. Earlier, an arbitral award in favour of the Kochi cricket franchise of Rs. 800 crore, was passed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice RC Lahoti.
Previously, the BCCI had filed a Section 34 application before the Bombay HC challenging the same. Following this, the Kochi franchise went to the Supreme Court when the High Court had proceeded to stay the arbitral award.
Citing a breach in their contractual agreement, the owners of Kochi Tuskers franchise had won an arbitration challenging the BCCI’s decision to encash bank guarantee back in 2015.
The panel which was headed by former Chief Justice Ramesh Chandra Lahoti had directed BCCI to pay Rs 550 crore as compensation along with 18% annual penalty for failing to do so until then.
BCCI has been adamant in not paying the compensation nor taking back the Kochi franchise in the IPL for the last couple of years.
The decision to terminate the Kochi franchise’s contract was taken by Shashank Manohar who was the BCCI President at the time, citing breach of the agreement. It is said that a majority of BCCI officials were against such action being taken. “It was one man's obstinacy that is now costing us a bomb. Had Shashank not taken that decision, we could have worked our way out.”
"In fact, before Kochi went to arbitration, they had asked for a compensation of Rs 300 crore. Even then our officials showed arrogance and now we will be forced to shell out more than double," an angry BCCI official said.