Jaipur IPL hearing on May 3

Suspense continues over the holding of IPL matches in Jaipur despite the Supreme Court’s rejection of the Mumbai Cricket Association’s (MCA) appeal against the Bombay high court order to shift IPL matches out of Maharashtra. Now all eyes will be on the Rajasthan high court which has asked state government to inform it about what it has been doing to ensure drinking water for the people.

If the Supreme Court were to change the high court decision, IPL matches would have stayed in Maharashtra and the PIL challenging these matches in Jaipur would have been rendered meaningless. Now, it is up to Rajasthan high court, which has given the state government three days to inform it about drinking water arrangements.

A division bench of acting Chief Justice Ajay Rastogi and Justice D.C. Somani, while hearing a PIL filed by freelance journalist Mahesh Pareek, said the court was not against entertainment but it cannot overlook the severe water crisis faced by the people in the state. The division bench also said the IPL may bring the city national or international fame, but the government’s first priority should be water. It has to find a balance between the two. “Tell us by April 30 what arrangements you have made to ensure drinking water supply for the next two months,” they said while fixing the next hearing for May 3.

In its reply, the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) told the court that the ground requires very little water for a game but said that at present groundwater is being used for ground maintenance. Taking note of that, the court said the groundwater situation is bad in the state and the government must understand this.

The attorney-general, representing the state government, sought some time to file the reply even as the petitioner’s counsel, Prateek Kasliwal, urged the court to expedite the hearing because matches are to be held in the second week of May.

The petitioner, Mahesh Pareek, had filed a PIL seeking a ban on IPL matches in Jaipur because of the severe water crisis in the state. His argument is that the water situation in Rajasthan is worse than in Maharashtra.

On the request of the state government, the Board of Control for Cricket in India had shifted three Mumbai Indian matches to Jaipur.