Bombay HC dismisses board’s petition over arbitral award case

New Delhi: Kochi Tuskers had an IPL season to forget as they finished 8th in the points table during the 2011 edition. BCCI faced a major setback in the dispute with Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Kochi Tuskers.The board will have to pay INR 538 crore to the owners of Kochi Tuskers.The Bombay High Court on Tuesday dismissed BCCI's petition. In this petition, the board had appealed against the decision of the arbitral tribunal.In July 2015, the tribunal had ordered the board to give an arbitral award of INR 538 crore to the owners of Kochi Tuskers Kerala.Justice R.I. Chagla's single bench said, 'The court cannot intervene in this matter because the role of the court is limited under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act. BCCI's challenge is against the scope of Section 34 of the Act.'10 years ago in 2015, tribunal's Justice R.C. Lahoti had ruled in favour of the franchise.The court ordered that BCCI will give 538 crore rupees to the team as compensation.It was this decision of the tribunal that BCCI challenged in the Bombay High Court. Bombay High Court said, " We cannot change the arbitrator's decision just because you don't like it".Arbitration is a method where two parties (such as people, companies, or organizations) resolve their dispute in front of a third party instead of a court.The third party is called an arbitrator. There was a financial dispute between Kochi Tuskers and BCCI. Their dispute went to the arbitral tribunal. This tribunal ruled in favour of Kochi Tuskers.Kochi Tuskers Kerala was included as a new IPL team in 2011. The ownership of this team was initially with Rendezvous Sports World (RSW). Later, it was taken over by Kochi Cricket Private Limited (KCPL). In September 2011, BCCI terminated the franchise.This was because the franchise owners could not renew BCCI's bank guarantee. The owner was supposed to deposit the guarantee in the bank by March 26, 2011. The board waited for about six months, but they did not receive the contract amount of INR 156 crore. As a result, BCCI terminated the team in the annual meeting on September 19, 2011.Against this decision of the board, KCPL and RSW initiated the arbitration process in 2012. In 2015, the tribunal ruled that BCCI violated the contract and wrongfully recovered the guaranteed amount. The tribunal stated that due to BCCI's mistake, KCPL suffered a loss of INR 384 crore, and RSW suffered a loss of INR 153 crore. In total, compensation of more than INR 538 crore was determined, including interest and legal expenses.It was bought by Rendezvous Sports World Company (RSW) in 2010 for INR 1555 crore.In fact, BCCI increased the number of IPL teams from eight to ten in 2011.The team, captained by Mahela Jayawardene, included star players like Brendon McCullum, Ravindra Jadeja, Muttiah Muralitharan, RP Singh, and S Sreesanth.Despite this, the team could only win six out of 14 matches and remained at eighth position in the points table, failing to reach the playoffs.Kochi played only one season, but against them, Sachin Tendulkar, scored his only T20 century.On April 15, 2011, at Wankhede Stadium, Tendulkar's century helped Mumbai Indians score 182 runs.However, this score was not enough for the team's victory, as Kochi achieved the target in 19 overs with only two wickets down. McCullum scored a match-winning 81 runs.