The Lodha panel, which was appointed by the Supreme Court of India, suspended the owners of IPL franchises Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals for a period of two years in connection with the betting and spot-fixing scandals in the IPL. This follows the IPL rules that state that a franchisee can be punished if the team owners are found guilty of betting or betting related activities.
In the light of recent verdict of the Supreme Court appointed committee headed by Justice MR Lodha, two Indian Premier League teams viz. Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals are suspended from participating in the Indian Premier League for next two years. Committee found teams’ involvement in the alleged sport fixing and betting scam during 2013 IPL.
Since, then various media are very much sympathetic towards the players of above-mentioned teams and published various articles on both print and online that, those players shall be given a fair chance to play for any other teams in the IPL by conducting a fresh OR separate auction for those players who are part of two suspended franchisees.
Therefore, the question here is whether such fresh auction for players of above two franchisees are legally valid. In my opinion, such an auction shall be conducted only for those players who were not part of alleged betting scam and sport fixing.
Though, the players are also a participants in the franchisee, whether each player has acted in a manner in violation of the operational rules needs to be examined. The present verdict has not covered this issue. Action can be taken only against the erring players accordingly, including lifetime ban.
Further, giving a fair chance to the players of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) is a question to moot, because no penalty can be given without giving them reasonable opportunity to defend themselves. As we know, suspension of two years will badly affect the career and future of many players, because, most of them may not even have thought of betting or match fixing at all. Not all the players can be tarnished black with the same allegation of improper conduct.