'All IPL franchisees violated the company act'

The Government has found company law violations by all 10 franchisees of the Indian Premier League and has asked the Registrar of Companies to take penal action wherever necessary, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.

"The preliminary information/reports have indicated non-compliance of certain provisions of the Companies Act, 1956, by the IPL franchisees," Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

He identified Indiawin Sports (which owns Mumbai Indians), Royal Challengers Sports (Bangalore team), Deccan Chargers Sporting Ventures (of Deccan Chargers), India Cements (Chennai Super Kings), GMR Sports (Delhi Daredevils), KPH Dream Cricket (Kings XI Punjab) for not complying with the Companies Act.

Knight Rider Sports (Kolkata Knight Riders), Jaipur IPL Cricket (Rajasthan Royals), Sahara Adventure Sports (Sahara Pune Warriors) and Rendezvous Sports (Kochi team) were other violators named by the Minister.

Khurshid was responding to a query on whether the Government was probing IPL franchisees. He, however, did not provide details about the company law provisions that were not complied with by the franchisees.

The MCA had asked the RoCs to collect complete information, including ownership details and proof of filing tax returns from all the IPL team franchisees, following the controversy relating to sweat equity in the Kochi team to a friend of the then Union Minister Shashi Tharoor.

"The Registrar of Companies have been instructed to scrutinise the documents of the companies under section 234 of the Companies Act, 1956 and take penal action wherever warranted," Khurshid said.