Rafiq Dada, acting AG Rohit Deo appear as Bombay HC refuses to stay IPL match

Much drama was in store in court room 43 of the Bombay High Court, as reporters lined up in anticipation to witness the hearing in the PIL seeking relocation of all IPL matches in the State due to the water crisis..After hearing arguments which lasted nearly ninety minutes, Justices VM Kanade and MS Karnik refused to stay the first match scheduled for this Saturday. The matter has now been posted for further hearing on April 12..At the very outset Arsheel Shah, appearing for the petitioners, made a pointed attack at the premier league..“The IPL is just about a commercial establishment minting money while the city of Mumbai runs dry. Prisoners in Latur are being shifted due to severe shortage of water, there is no water for sanitation in Nagpur. .Malad, Thane, Navi Mumbai all these places are facing severe crisis. Money cannot quench the thirst of the people. The Chief Minister himself had called for people to conserve water this Holi, how can the state let the IPL take place now?.Senior Counsel Rafiq Dada appeared for the BCCI as well as the Mumbai Cricket Association. After initially questioning the locus of the petitioners, saying that they were based out of Hyderabad, Dada sought to differentiate the two issues of IPL matches and the maintainence of the cricket pitches..“As per the Polly Umrigar plan, there is no watering of the pitch for 48 hrs before the match, daily watering is required to maintain the pitch but it should remain completely dry at the start of the match. So during the match no water will be required for the pitch..Water is required to maintain these stadiums, otherwise we will have to close them down. We have a borwell at Horniman circle (near the High Court), we even had one in the high court premises earlier. The water level in Mumbai is quiet high. Now they (petitioners) have filed this at the last minute, people have already brought tickets.”.It was an argument that did not go down too well with the Bench. Justice Kanade questioned the logic of this approach..“Are you going to maintain gardens and cricket pitches while people all over the State are dying? This is not a question of IPL alone, we have nothing to do with all these people in the IPL making money.”.Acting Advocate General Rohit Deo said that around 20,000- 22,000 litres are supplied to the stadiums for maintainence, this is after the BMC imposed a cut in this supply in light of the recent shortage.He also questioned the source of data provided by the MCA yesterday..Kanade J observed that the court had hoped that these organizers would have taken initiative in this matter..He recorded the following directions –.State must provide details regarding the newly proposed water policyA contigency plan regarding water scarcity, if there is one, must be placed on recordThe source of water in these tankers that are servicing these stadiums must be looked into by the state.State must clarify whether it is willing to propose requisition of all wells, borewells and tankers in the city.