Bombay High Court
"Your next big star might come from a public ground," the Bombay High Court told the BCCI, the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA), and state authorities on Monday. The high court asked these bodies to provide basic facilities on public grounds. Such facilities include toilets, drinking water, and medical assistance.
A bench of Justices Anil Menon and MS Karnik said several children, as well as adults, play cricket and other sports on public grounds across the state. Most of these grounds, whether under the control of civic bodies or cricket associations, were lacking basic facilities.
The bench was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Bombay HC lawyer Rahul Tiwari.
Tiwari represented himself in the case and told the HC that he was a professional cricket player and had participated in various tournaments.
"When one books a public ground for practice, one is required to pay a fee to the civic body or to the sports association under whose jurisdiction the ground falls," he said.
"But, most of these grounds, even where professional cricket camps are organized, do not have access to clean drinking water or to a toilet that can be used by players," he said.
The MCA and the BCCI counsels, however, told the HC that most public grounds in the state were under the jurisdiction of municipal bodies.
They further said even in cases where they organized camps or practice matches, the permission to provide basic facilities was often denied by civic or state authorities concerned.
But, the HC bench said such a statement was not acceptable.
"Have you ever applied and then been denied permission? File an affidavit," the HC told the MCA and the BCCI.
"This is not adversarial litigation, for you might get your next star from the public ground. So many bright children are playing on public grounds," the bench said.
The HC said the Maharashtra government, BMC, MCA, and the BCCI must file their respective affidavits within two weeks. These would contain details about how many grounds were under their jurisdiction and what facilities were made available by them there.
(Inputs from PTI)
