The government is seriously considering referring allegations of rigging of IPL bids to the Competition Commission of India for a thorough probe, which may extend to the disappearance of the bid documents of the Videocon and Adani groups, reports Times of India.
The nature of allegations — rigging of bids by League bosses as well as collusion among bidders — falls directly within the domain of the competition regulator that was set up in 2003.Section 3(3) of the Competition Act, 2002, defines bid rigging as any pact between “enterprises or persons engaged in identical or similar production of trading of goods or provision of services that has the effect of eliminating or reducing competition for bid or adversely affecting or manipulating the process for bidding.''
Experts feel that T20 cricket, as provided in the IPL competition, is covered under the rubric of ‘‘services'' coming under the law. Another provision in the Act, Section 3 (3)(d) says, ‘‘Any agreement which directly or indirectly results in bid rigging or collusive bidding shall be presumed to have an appreciable adverse effect on competition.''
Significantly, Section 18 of the Act empowers the Commission to ‘‘inquire either by itself or enlist the services of any investigating agency, including a foreign one, with Centre's approval.''
The probe may also cover the role of the IPL bosses who allegedly advised the Dhoots and Adanis to keep their bids modestly above $300 million. Simultaneously, IPL administration also allegedly told the promoters of Kochi consortium not to put more than $300 million on the table.
While it is the controversy over Kochi that took lid off the alleged scandal in IPL, disclosures of ‘‘unfair play'' has also prompted a torrent of charges of bid rigging three years ago when the original eight IPL teams were launched. That round saw two consortiums in which Lalit Modi's kin hold stakes bag the Jaipur and Chandigarh franchises for relatively low amounts. Shah Rukh Khan's Kolkata Knight Riders also won the rights for Kolkata by a slender margin.
