The hearing of a PIL, which was filed by an NGO, ‘Loksatta Movement,’ against the Indian Premier League (IPL), took place at the Bombay High Court. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has filed an affidavit on their consumption of water during IPL matches.
Read: Bombay HC: IPL Should Be Moved out of Maharashtra Due to Drought
The BCCI and other cricket associations in Maharashtra have been pulled up for wasting water for maintaining pitches while the entire state reels under severe drought.
The Bombay High Court has said there will be ‘no stay’ on the first match of the IPL, scheduled to be held at Wankhede stadium on 9 April. However, it has directed the state to investigate where BCCI gets the rest of its water from if the government allegedly supplies them with just 22,000 litres of potable water.
The state’s acting attorney general (AAG), Rohit Deo, was asked by the Bombay High Court to appear on Thursday to discuss the matter further. Deo stated in court that the petitions mention the use of nearly 60 lakh litres of water to maintain the pitch is absurd as the state supplies only 22,000 litres of water. He said:
Loksatta’s lawyer, Arshil Shah, said that this water is the same that Bombay Muncipal Corporation (BMC) supplies, but it is not known whether the water is being taken legally or illegally.
Advocate Arshil Shah stressed that several villages in Maharashtra do not even have water for sanitation, cooking and other purposes. The situation, it is known, is so bad that section 144 has been imposed in certains parts of Maharashtra.
The division bench consisting of Justice Kanade and MS Karnik continued the hearing from Wednesday and slammed the Ministry of Corporate Affairs advocate with responding questions.
On Thursday, Justice Kanade commented on the disparity that is faced by people in Thane and surrounding areas, comparing it to the water being used licentiously by the IPL at large.
The lawyer representing BCCI questioned the reason for filing a petition just four days before the first match on 9 April, when the schedule was declared a long time ago. The lawyer then added:
To this, Loksatta’s advocate Arshil Shah asked:
The MCA lawyer says that the pitch is not watered only during IPL. He added that every international pitch is maintained at all times, stressing that the water used by BCCI is not drinkable water.
The judge responds to this statement by asking if the court should ‘give priority to the game and let people die. People are dying and you want to maintain pitches?’
(With inputs from ANI.)
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