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World Cup sponsors can remit money in forex: SC

New Delhi Jan. 31. Clearing the decks for the smooth flow of money for staging the 2003 cricket World Cup in South Africa, the Supreme Court today allowed major sponsors, including LG Electronics India (LGEI), to remit foreign exchange for the tournament.

However, a three-judge Bench, comprising the Chief Justice, V.N. Khare, Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Justice Arijit Pasayat, made it clear that the remittances made by the sponsors would be subject to the final orders passed by the Court.

This interim order was passed by the Bench while postponing for eight weeks hearing on an appeal filed by LGEI challenging the Delhi High Court order of January 22.

The High Court had directed the Union Government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that no foreign exchange, either in the form of sponsorship money or as damages, be released to the International Cricket Council (ICC) if the apex body debarred India from playing in the championship or imposed any penalty or damages on players or the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI).

Right at the beginning of the hearing, the sponsors' counsel, Ashok Desai and P. Chidambaram, submitted that the RBI had issued notices to the companies sponsoring the event on the basis of the High Court order.

The Bench, indicating that the tournament must go on, passed the interim order allowing the sponsors to release foreign exchange for the event but with a rider that all such remittances would be subject to the final orders of the Court.

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 had no jurisdiction to entertain the public interest litigation petition filed by N.K.P. Salve, Kapil Dev and four others.

Saying that the company was fully committed to the cause of Indian cricket and had spent over Rs. 300 crores till now, LG alleged that the PIL petition 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". — PTI

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