MPHC dismisses PIL relate to sale of online ticket within three minutes for intl. cricket match to play in Indore

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has dismissed a PIL related to alleged fraud and tax evasion in sale of online ticket by the M.P. Cricket Association for international cricket match to play at Indore on 24.01.2023.

The court imposed cost on a petitioner social activist of Rs.25000 for filing PIL on basis of newspaper reporting.

A division bench comprising Justice SA Dharmadhikari and Justice PC Gupta observed ‘it is settled proposition of law that PIL on the basis of newspaper reporting is not maintainable’.

‘This Court finds no reason to entertain the petition and the same deserves to be and is hereby dismissed with cost of Rs. 25,000/- (Rupees Twenty Five Thousand only) imposed on the petitioner for wasting the precious time of this Court, said the court order of January 18, 2023.

The petitioner is directed to deposit the aforesaid cost before the High Court Legal Services Committee, Indore within a period of 30 days from today, failing which the Registry is directed to list thiscase under the head “Direction Matter”, so as to enable this Court to pass appropriate order for recovery of the cost by way of arrears of land revenue.

Rakesh Yadav a social activist from Indore filed the PIL alleging illegality, fraud and tax evasion committed by the respondent M.P. Cricket Association through its officers.

The petitioner counsel submitted that huge black marketing of tickets has taken place when the portal for sale of tickets through online portal was opened and within three minutes, it crashed. It cannot be
imagined that the entire 28,000 tickets were sold within three minutes, the court order said.

The petitioner is directed to deposit the aforesaid cost before the High Court Legal Services Committee, Indore within a period of 30 days from today, the court order said.