Hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against holding IPL matches in Jaipur amidst growing water crisis, the Rajasthan High Court on Thursday served notices to the state government, Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), asking them to respond by Wednesday with their side of the arguments about holding IPL matches shifted out from Maharashtra, in Rajasthan.
The matches were moved out of Maharashtra on orders of the Bombay High Court and are scheduled to be held at the Sawai Mansingh Staidum in Jaipur.
The HC notices came in response to a PIL filed by city-based freelance journalist Mahesh Pareek, who sought the matches to be stayed till the petition was disposed off. The petition has argued that if the IPL matches, for the Mumbai Indians franchise, were shifted out of Maharashtra because of water scarcity, Rajasthan was not an appropriate venue since the state was suffering a water crisis as well.
“The State of Rajasthan more particularly the City of Jaipur is already facing acute shortage of water as the level of water in dams and lakes in the State has gone down,” as contended in the PIL.
The petition points out that “19 out of 33 districts including Jaipur” faced deficit rainfall as the
state received 19.23 per cent less rainfall last monsoon. It also says that 12 of the 13 blocks in Jaipur fell under “over-exploited category”.
A division bench of acting chief justice Ajay Rastogi and justice DC Somani gave the direction while hearing a plea filed by Mahesh Pareek. In its verbal observation, the court commented that not a single drop of water exists in Ramgarh Dam, adding that the ground water level was depleting day by day in the city.
The matter is scheduled to be heard next on April 27.
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