HC dismisses plea challenging auction of cricket players in IPL; imposes cost of Rs 25k

The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed with a cost of Rs 25,000 a plea challenging auctioning and selling of cricket players as part of Indian Premier League (IPL), saying the petition was filed only for publicity.

The plea had sought direction to scrap or nullify and declare the "system of bidding/auctioning/selling of international human in the name of game as illegal".

The court said no question of sale or purchase of a human being arises here and this was not a public interest litigation at all, rather it was a "Publicity Interest Litigation".

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and C Hari Shankar said the allegation of sale or auction as mentioned in the petition is "derogatory to national players".

The petition which was filed by Delhi resident Sudhir Sharma had sought action against the offenders, including team owners, for allegedly violating the law.