PIL filed in Madras High Court against sale of IPL tickets in black

PIL filed in Madras High Court against IPL ticket black market, urging strict action by police and TNCA.

A public interest litigation petition has been filed in the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the Greater Chennai Commissioner of Police and Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) to take stringent action against those who sell Indian Premier League (IPL) tickets in the black market.

The PIL has been listed for admission before the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice D. Bhratha Chakravarthy on Friday. Advocate A. Sathiya Prakash had filed the PIL complaining that the black market prevents a common cricket fan from watching the matches.

His affidavit stated that cricket is the most loved sport in the country and the fans in Chennai vie to get an opportunity to watch the matches conducted at the M.A. Chidambaram Cricket Stadium at Chepauk. However, of late, purchasing tickets for a fair price was becoming a herculean task, he rued.

He said though TNCA sells tickets online, the booking closes in no time and those who manage to purchase them end up selling those tickets at exorbitant rates to the die hard fans of the sport. This leads to disparity with those who cannot afford such high rates being not able to enjoy the matches.

Claiming that a huge black market mafia was operating behind the sale of IPL tickets in Chennai, he said, the city police had recently arrested five persons and seized eight tickets, for the IPL match between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru on March 22, as well as cash of ₹31,500 from them.

It was found that the tickets were being sold in black for 10 times the actual price and even the lower stand tickets were sold for an exorbitant price of ₹14,000 to ₹16,000, he said and relied upon news reports of the police having arrested 24 persons on March 27 for the same offence.

The arrested were found to be selling tickets in black for the CSK versus Gujarat Titans match held in Chennai on March 26. The police had seized 83 tickets and ₹18,000 in cash from them. Therefore, there was an urgent need to find out the entire nexus behind the black market, the petitioner insisted.