The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain the plea filed by senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy seeking e-auction of media rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
A three-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra and also comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and A. M. Khanwilkar, refused to entertain the plea filed by Swamy in the case.
The 11th edition of the IPL is scheduled to start in April next year.
Swamy, however, said he wanted to file an Interim Application (IE) highlighting alleged collusion and conflict of interest on behalf of a BCCI functionary who also runs a news channel. This plea was allowed by the top court.
"Today SC allowed me to file an IA to seek directions in the IPL auction's conflict of interest of Rajiv Shukla as IPL chairman & Star TV bid," he tweeted.
The Supreme Court had earlier asked BCCI COA chief Vinod Rai to file an affidavit specifying how the ongoing tender process was better than the e-auction.
The apex court had on July 28 sought the response of the BCCI on Swamy's plea that e-auction of the media rights should be done to ensure transparency as the rights are to be given for the next five years.
Rai had previously backed the idea of inviting closed bids. On July 11, Swamy moved to the apex court, seeking e-auction of media rights for the matches of the lucrative T20 league.
A total of 24 companies have expressed interest in bidding for the IPL media rights.
Submission of the Invitation to Tender (ITT) is set on September 4.
Brands such as Discovery, Airtel, BAM Tech, Yupp TV, DAZN / Perform Group, Yahoo, Star India, ISPN, Amazon and Reliance Jio are among the companies who will be contending for the television and digital rights of IPL.
At present, Sony Pictures Network India (SPNI) is holding the rights of the IPL. However, their deal is going to an end after the event's next edition.
In 2008, the Singapore-based World Sports Group bagged the IPL television rights for a 10-year period with a USD 918 million bid.
It simultaneously signed a deal with Multi Screen Media Pvt. Ltd. (MSM) that Sony would be the official broadcaster. The contract was recast before IPL 2009, with MSM agreeing to pay USD1.63 billion for nine years.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)