PIL filed to shift Indian Premier League matches from Bengaluru
The ninth edition of the Indian Premier League kicked off at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on 9 April 2016. The Rising Pune Supergiants started their inaugural Vivo IPL campaign with a bang by thrashing the defending champions, the Mumbai Indians by 9 wickets at their home ground.
However, the domestic Indian T20 league filled with glitz and glamour has faced a number of protests and objections this year due to the Maharashtra drought problem that has threatened to shift the IPL matches out of Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur.
Having said that, another fresh PIL has been filed earlier today in the Karnataka High Court with the intentions of shifting the Indian Premier League matches from Bengaluru due to the drought situation in the state.
Also read: VVS Laxman talks about the Maharashtra drought problem
Earlier, a Bengaluru-based advocate, Diwakar had submitted the petition to the Karnataka High Court with the intention of shifting the IPL matches out of the state. However, since he didn't add the IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla as a party to the same, the court asked him to re-submit the petition on 11 April.
In an interview given to the PTI, Diwakar said, “I made an attempt to move the High Court asking BCCI (The Board of Control for Cricket in India) to shift IPL matches out of Karnataka as it is facing water problems and severe drought conditions.”
“The court directed me to file the petition afresh on Monday (11 April 2016) as Rajeev Shukla was not made the party to the case,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Bombay High Court has ordered the BCCI to shift the IPL matches out of Maharashtra. In fact, the state's highest judicial authority has also instructed the state government to investigate the BCCI's source for the rest of the water if they were being supplied only 22,000 litres of the same.
However, Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) has questioned the timing of the petition enquiring the reason behind filing it just four days before the start of the tournament “when (the) schedule (of Vivo IPL 2016) was declared long ago.”