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After 13 years of termination of Indian Premier League’s (IPL) defunct franchise Kochi Tuskers Kerala (KTK), the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has been instructed to pay an amount of INR 538 crore to the inoperative team as per the order passed by the Bombay High Court on June 18. Kochi recorded their presence in the fourth edition of the cash-rich league played in 2011. However, after playing their debut season, the franchise was terminated in October 2011 after they failed to deliver a 10% bank guarantee for the fifth installment of the league to the IPL Governing Council.
The Kochi Cricket Private Limited (KCPL) and Rendezvous Sports World (RSW) went to arbitration and asserted the termination invalid. In 2015, the arbitral tribunal delivered a verdict in the complainants’ favour, ordering BCCI to deliver INR 384 crore to KCPL for lost future profits and ₹153 crore to RSW for unjustified encashment of the bank guarantee. The BCCI challenged the decision and claimed that the arbitrator went beyond his authority and blundered while awarding both profits lost and wasted expenditure. The board also asserted that the arbitrator’s decision was duplicative and vice versa to the contract law.
High Court rejects BCCI’s challenge on KTK decision
According to Bar and Bench, a single-bench comprising Justice Chagla came to the conclusion that arbitrator’s reasoning is based on a correct appreciation of the evidence and replicated that the court’s role under Section 34 is not to crack down the appeal over the arbitrator’s findings.
“The jurisdiction of this Court under Section 34 of the Arbitration Act is very limited. BCCI’s endeavour to delve into the merits of the dispute, is in teeth of the scope of the grounds contained in Section 34 of the Act. BCCI’s dissatisfaction as to the findings rendered in respect of the evidence and/or the merits cannot be a ground to assail the Award.”
