A week before the 2003 cricket World Cup commences in South Africa, the Supreme Court will hear a petition filed by one of the tournament's official sponsors -- L G Electronics India Ltd -- challenging the Delhi high court order, which blocks the release of foreign exchange in the event of the International Cricket Council penalising Indian players or the Board of Control for Cricket in India on the contracts issue.
A three-judge bench, comprising Chief Justice V N Khare, Justice S B Sinha and Justice A R Lakshmanan, posted LG's Special Leave Petition, which also seeks a stay of the high court order, for hearing on January 31.
In a severe blow to the ICC and sponsors of the World Cup on the issue of the controversial players' contract, the high court, on Wednesday, directed the Union Government and the Reserve Bank of India that no foreign exchange, either in form of sponsorship money or as damages, be released to the ICC if it debars India from playing in the championship or imposes any penalty or damages on the players or BCCI.
Giving relief to the Indian cricketers a week before their departure for the February 9 - March 23 tournament, the interim order said that in such an event the official sponsors -- LG Electronics, Hero Honda and Pepsi Foods -- would not be allowed to advertise during the World Cup.
LG, in its petition, said that as the BCCI had "invoked an arbitration clause and the matter is pending before the Swiss Court of Arbitration", the high court has no jurisdiction to entertain the Pubilc Interest Litigation, filed by N K P Salve, Kapil Dev and four others.
Saying that the company is fully committed to the cause of Indian cricket and has spent over Rs three billion till now, LG alleged that the PIL filed before the high court was a "collusive petition instigated by its competitor and aided by the BCCI, which by recourse to a proxy petition is seeking to wriggle out of its contractual obligations having agreed to
certain clauses which compromise the interest of the Indian cricketers."
Terming the effect of the high court order as "achieving something indirectly which was not possible directly", the electronic major said the high court completely lost sight of the fact that the matter was squarely covered under the contractual obligations in which it had no jurisdiction.
"The high court has also restrained the petitioner from advertising in respect of the World Cup, 2003, although LG is a global partner of ICC and has a valid, existing and concerned contract for which it has paid lawful and valuable consideration to the extent of approximately Rs 40 crores [400 million] and is obliged to pay further amounts from time to time," it said.
LG has acquired commercial and marketing rights for not only this World Cup but for global cricketing events and championships, including the next World Cup, over a period of five years, starting from 2002, it said.
"The effect and consequence of the high court order is to restrain the petitioner from making payments (in foreign exchange) in fulfillment of its contractual obligations and stipulations tantamounting to inducing the petitioner to breach its contract which would be against public policy and sanctity of contract," LG said.