IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) THURSDAY, THE TWENTY FIRST DAY OF FEBRUARY TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE DR JUSTICE G.YETHIRAJULU WRIT PETITION NO : 25593 of 2002 Between: K.P.Rao, s/o.Sri Venkat Ratnam, aged 44 years, Hon.Secretary, Krishna Dist., Olympic Association, Indira Gandhi Municipal Corporation Stadium, Vijayawada-10, Krishna District. ..... PETITIONER AND 1. The Government of A.P., rep.by its Secretary, Sports and Youth Services Department, A.P.Secretariat, Hyderabad 2. The Government of A.P., rep.by its Principal Secretary, Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department, A.P. Secretariat, Hyderabad 3.The Government of A.P., rep.by its Secretary, Revenue Department, A.P. Secretariat, Hyderabad 4. The Director General of Police, Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad. 5. The Commissioner of Police, Vijayawada, Krishna District. 6. The Municipal Commissioner, Vijayawada Municipal Corporation, Vijayawada, Krishna District. 7. The Secretary, Andhra Cricket Association, Gandhinagar, Vijayawada, Krishna District. 8. The Secretary, Krishna District, Cricket Association, Indira Gandhi Municipal Corporation Stadium, Vijayawada, Krishna District. 9. The Secretary, Board of Cricket Control in India, Wankhade Stadium, Mumbai. 10. The Government of India, rep.by its Secretary, Ministry of Sports, New Delhi .....RESPONDENTS Petition under Article 226 of the constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the Affidavit filed herein the High Court will be pleased to issue a writ, order or direction, more particularly one in the nature of a writ of mandamus declaring the action of the respondent NO.6 in not collecting the rent at the rate of Rs.1000/- per day apart from the rent fro fixation of furniture and chairs from 23-8-2002 to 25-11-2002 and not collecting the entertainment tax and advertisement tax and the user charges for utilizing the police personnel by respondents 1 to 5 and not allowing other sports personnel utilizing the stadium as arbitrary and illegal and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India and consequently; i) to direct the respondents to collect the rent amounts as specified above; or at higher rate as per bye-laws from 23- 8-2002 to 25-11-2002 ii) to direct the respondents to collect entertainment and advertisement tax and user charges iii) to direct the respondent Nos.7,8 and 9 to pay a sum of Rs.1.00 lakh to each of the Krishna District Olympic Association, as compensation and pass such other order or orders. Counsel for the Petitioner: SMT.M.VINOBHA DEVI Counsel for the Respondent No.: MR.T.S.VENKATARAMANA The Court made the following : ORDER: This writ petition has been filed seeking to declare the action of the 6th respondent in not collecting the rent at the rate of Rs.1,000/- per day apart from the rent for fixation of furniture and chairs etc., from 23-08-2002 to 25-11-2002 and not collecting the entertainment tax and advertisement tax and the user charges for utilizing the police personnel by respondents 1 to 5 and not allowing other sports personnel utilizing the Stadium as arbitrary, illegal and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India and to issue suitable directions to the respondents.. The grievance of the petitioner is that the 6th respondent is collecting nominal rent for the stadium for One-day International Cricket Match and National level Cricket match. Though the Municipal Corporation was spending huge amount no charges are being collected from the Cricket Association, thereby, the respondents are showing favouritism. Therefore, he requested to grant the reliefs as prayed for. The 7th respondent filed a counter-affidavit stating that they collected donations from various persons and they also incurred expenditure from their funds and the Municipal Corporation, Vijayawada, did not spend any amount for the purpose of providing any amenities or otherwise in connection with the One-day International Cricket Match, therefore, the contention of the petitioner that the Government authorities and the municipal authorities have taken partial attitude towards Cricket Association is totally misconceived. The Municipal Corporation of Visakhapatnam has invested huge amounts for the matches conducted at Visakhapatnam. The stadiums are meant for sports activities and to promote the game. But for the intention of respondents 7 and 8 the said One-day International Match had not been conducted in Vijayawada, and the event enhanced the status of Vijayawada Municipal Corporation to the International level. The petitioner wants to extract certain things by filing this type of frivolous petitions and making baseless allegations which constitute defamation. If this type of attitude is being permitted, no sports activities will be developed and no association will come forward to conduct the state level, National level and International Matches. The State Government and the Central Government have been encouraging the sports persons and the Organizations and other bodies like the 7th and 8th respondents in order to promote the sports activity. The Government of Andhra Pradesh has recently conducted National Games by incurring 100 crores of rupees from the Government funds whereas the local bodies of Vijayawada did not incur any expenditure for this purpose. On the other hand, they have invested lacks of rupees in order to maintain the International standards for conducting the One-day International Cricket Match, which was being held for the first time in Vijayawada. Therefore, there is no question of discrimination or violation of Article 14 of the Constitution of India. The rents fixed by the Municipality will also help the players at District level to conduct games and sports by utilizing the stadium to contribute good sportsmen to the Nation. After going through the contents of the affidavit and the counter-affidavit by the 7th respondent, I am of the view that the petitioner did not mention the instances of discrimination among the equal organizations of various disciplines. Therefore, I do not find any grounds to issue any direction in this matter. The Writ Petition is accordingly dismissed. No order as to costs. _________________ 21st February, 2008 SKM ..... REGISTRAR // TRUE COPY // SECTION OFFICER Copy To: 1. The Secretary, Government of A.P., Sports and Youth Services Department, A.P.Secretariat, Hyderabad 2. The Principal Secretary, Government of A.P., Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department, A.P. Secretariat, Hyderabad 3.The Secretary, Government of A.P., Revenue Department, A.P. Secretariat, Hyderabad 4. The Director General of Police, Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad. 5. The Commissioner of Police, Vijayawada, Krishna District. 6. The Municipal Commissioner, Vijayawada Municipal Corporation, Vijayawada, Krishna District. 7. The Secretary, Andhra Cricket Association, Gandhinagar, Vijayawada, Krishna District. 8. The Secretary, Krishna District, Cricket Association, Indira Gandhi Municipal Corporation Stadium, Vijayawada, Krishna District. 9. The Secretary, Board of Cricket Control in India, Wankhade Stadium, Mumbai. 10. The Secretary, Government of India, Ministry of Sports, New Delhi 11 2CD copies Form-NIC-OGS/WP{ }