IPL Season 2 winner Deccan Chargers removed: BCCI will pay INR 48 billion.

By Line: Purvi Jain

In a long drawn dispute, the sun has finally arrived for the owners of Deccan chargers on Friday. A sole arbitrator has awarded Rs. 4800 crore to Deccan Chronicle Holding Ltd (DCHL) in its dispute against BCCI over what it said was illegal termination of former IPL franchise team from Hyderabad.

The termination of Deccan chargers of the Hyderabad franchise occurred in 2012. DC was the one who won the second IPL, was the first eight teams of IPL.

Bombay High court in September 2012 appointed the arbitrator to decide was BCCI’s termination notice for “irremediable breaches” was valid or not.

The company challenged the termination over the concerns of the company’s financial stability.  The HC had a time where it also directed DCHC to furnish a bank guarantee of Rs. 100 crore in 10 days. In 2012, BCCI told many players were not being paid and various banks were creditors of the franchise with a collective due of over Rs 4000 crore which was pending against DCHL.

In eight years, while arbitration was pending, in 2017 insolvency proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code have stalled the arbitral process. Finally, in what to the parties, sole former supreme court judge S K Thakker via an online proceeding, award pronounced orally. Ashish Pyasi of DHIS and DHIS Associates, the law firm which is responding DC said it’s the contention of unlawful termination upheld and BCCI has given the time to end the amount by September.

Viraj Maniar of Maniar Srivastava Associates which is the law firm of BCCI, says, “the detailed award copy is awaited. Once it is received, it will be studied and the next course of action will be taken, decided by BCCI”.

Senior counsel Haresh Jagtiani who is appearing for DCHC has argued that the termination did just a day before September 15 when the notice period was to end in a hasty manner and along with that while BCCI has contended that DC players were owed INR 13 crores, the board itself had INR 36 crores due at that time.