Victory for BaselineVentures in VFI arbitration

CHENNAI: The Volleyball Federation of India (VFI) has been ordered to pay Rs 4 crore as damages in its case against Baseline Ventures. VFI, the federation responsible for governing the sport in India, has also been asked to cough up Rs 5 lakh in legal fees apart from 12% interest from the date of announcement of arbitral proceedings till the date of payment. The judgment, delivered by sole arbitrator Justice (Retd) K Kannan, can be appealed to a higher court.

In his judgment, Kannan also threw out VFI's counter-claim, seeking Rs 14.93 cr from Baseline.
"The claimant (Baseline) is entitled to loss of profits of Rs 4 crores against the respondent (VFI) with the interest of 12%," the 50-page order held.

Baseline's vice-president, Joy Bhattacharjya, welcomed the verdict. "This is a total vindication for us," he told this daily. "They had no business terminating the contract (for conducting Pro Volley League). If you go through the order, the judge is of the opinion that the VFI were not bothered with the welfare of the players, franchises, coaches and so on. Even if VFI does take this to a higher court, I'm pretty sure this won't be overturned."

Here's a brief history of the case. VFI terminated the contract they had with Baseline over allegations of breach of contract last November. In December, the Madras High Court gave both parties two weeks to reach a solution. In January, the arbitrator ruled there were no financial irregularities in the accounts submitted by Baseline to VFI. The arbitrator also maintained that VFI did not follow due process while terminating the contract. The latest judgment passed by Kannan is after 10 months of hearings and representations from both parties.

On the question of IPR of the PVL brand, Baseline will hand that over to the VFI but Bhattacharjya said he won't be losing sleep over that. "When the case began, we had that option of restitution. But we didn't want it. We have seen the kind of people they are and we have no confidence that a scenario like this won't play out again."

Attempts to contact VFI went in vain.