The Government has found that all the 10 Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises did not comply with specific provisions of the Companies Act. It has instructed Registrar of Companies to scrutinise the documents of these firms and initiate penal action, wherever required.
This was stated by the Corporate Affairs Minister, Mr Salman Khurshid, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha, to a question on whether the Government was probing the IPL franchisees.
“The preliminary information/reports have indicated non-compliance of certain provisions of the Companies Act, 1956, by the IPL franchisees,” Mr Khurshid said.
These include Indiawin Sports (owner of the team Mumbai Indians), Royal Challengers Sports (Royal Challengers Bangalore), Deccan Chargers Sporting Ventures (Deccan Chargers), India Cements (Chennai Super Kings), GMR Sports (Delhi Daredevils), KPH Dream Cricket (Kings XI Punjab), Knight Rider Sports (Kolkata Knight Riders), Jaipur IPL Cricket (Rajasthan Royals), Sahara Adventure Sports (Sahara Pune Warriors) and Rendezvous Sports (Kochi).
Though the Minister did not specify the exact provisions that were not complied with, some of these companies reportedly did not file returns.
It may be recalled that the Corporate Affairs Ministry had sought a thorough investigation into accounts of all IPL teams after the auction of Kochi and Pune IPL teams for a whopping Rs 3,235 crore, and the controversy concerning grant of sweat equity in the Kochi team to the then Union Minister of State for External Affairs, Mr Shashi Tharoor’s friend Ms Sunanda Pushkar. Following the incident, Mr Tharoor had resigned over allegations that he influenced the award of sweat equity to Ms Pushkar.
In April, the RoC wrote to all IPL teams asking for details of ownership and proof of filing tax returns.
