Basketball Federation of India drags INBL Pro to Delhi High Court

The Basketball Federation of India (BFI) has sued the Indian National Basketball League Pro (INBL Pro) for unauthorised use of words 'India' or 'Select Indian Team', 'Indian' which allegedly give an impression that the league is being organised with the recognition of the BFI, the governing body for the sport of basketball in the country [Basketball Federation of India v Captains Professional Basketball League Pvt Ltd & Anr]..INBL Pro is a six-franchise basketball tournament whose exhibition match was held on May 10..Justice Prathiba M Singh dealt with the case on May 9 and May 10.In the order dated May 9, the Court restrained the INBL Pro from giving any impression that the league is being organised with the sanction of BFI or from poaching Indian players to play in the league.The next day, INBL Pro filed an application for the vacation of order and stated that its exhibition match is scheduled to be held on the same day.Considering the fact that several international players have also come for the match, the Court put in place an interim arrangement for the exhibition match..The Court ordered the INBL Pro to make it clear that it has no association with the BFI and that it is organising the league without any recognition from the body.It ordered the INBL Pro to make it clear that the exhibition match which was being held on May 10 is not for the selection of the Indian team.The Court directed the INBL Pro to ensure that no further matches of the league are conducted after the match held on May 10.Justice Singh further said that the players currently training under the Basketball Federation of India, who may participate in INBL Pro match, shall not be prevented from returning to the federation and the training camp.“The said arrangement is being put in place to ensure that the remaining tournaments, be it national or international can be attended and that the Basketball Federation of India, along with Team India, is duly represented in international tournaments as the official team of India. Further, it is directed that none of the players shall be penalised for participating in today’s match being organised by the Defendants,” the Court directed. .BFI argued that though the organisers of INBL Pro claim that BFI had entered into an agreement with them, the said agreement was void ab initio because it was signed on February 15, 2023 by one Chander Mukhi Sharma on behalf of the BFI as the Secretary General of the BFI.However, Sharma had ceased to be the Secretary General with effect from February 13, 2023 and the BFI terminated the said agreement.The federation further said that the defendants were giving an impression that they are the recognised league and that the INBL Pro is being organised with the approval of the BFI thought that was clearly not the case.Meanwhile, INBL Pro’s proprietors argued that they are duly authorised to conduct the league and the impression which was portrayed by the BFI that the agreement was not duly authorised, is incorrect as the expression of interest for the said agreement for running a league was issued on December 26, 2022 and theirs was the successful bid.The Court was told that a bank guarantee for the sum of ₹82.5 lakh was also given to the BFI and that the termination of this agreement can be done only with one month’s notice, which is clearly specified in the agreement..After considering the case, the Court put in place an interim arrangement for the match held on May 10.The Court ordered the defendants to file their reply to BFI's injunction application and said that the case will be heard next on July 29..Senior Advocates Sandeep Sethi, Rajiv Nayar and Dayan Krishnan along with advocates Rishi Agrawala, Anirudh Bakhru, Eklavya Dwivedi, Ankit Banati, Shravan Niranjan, Prabhav Bahuguna, Vikram Choudhary, T Mahendhran, Raghunatha Sethupathy, Shreedhar Kale, Sukrit Seth, Naman Agrawal, Sumer Seth and Sanya Sethi appeared for the Basketball Federation of India.Captains Professional Basketball League Private Limited (proprietors of INBL Pro) was represented by advocates Abhimanyu Bhandari, Apoorv Bansal, Vishesh Issar, Rahul Dhawan, Randeep Sachdeva and Krishna Parkhani. .[Read Order]