HC shifts 13 IPL games out of drought-hit state

BCCI and franchises given 15 days to move the matches

Only six of 19 IPL matches scheduled in Maharashtra can be held in the state and the organisers will have to shift out the rest from April 30, the Bombay high court ruled on Wednesday.

Saying claims of financial liabilities made by the organisers could not override the “larger cause of the people”, it gave the Board of Control for Cricket in India and franchise teams 15 days to “make arrangements” to move matches out of drought-hit Maharashtra.

The bench said while the state government had chosen to be a mute spectator and shift all blame on municipal authorities, the court could “not turn a blind eye to the plight of the people”.

It said that while “merely shifting the matches out would be a total solution” to the drought problem, the same must “act as a beginning to avert the use of large quantities of water for purposes other than that of the needs of the public”. The Mumbai and Pune teams offered to donate ` 5 crore each to the CM’s drought relief fund.

The court said the purpose of the hearing was not to determine whether water saved by preventing its use at IPL grounds could be put to use in drought-affected areas and whether the state could independently tackle water shortage, but it was about “sensitivity to the hardships faced by citizens”.

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