Chennai: Madras high court on Thursday refused urgent hearing of a PIL seeking to postpone IPL matches scheduled at M A Chidambaram stadium, Chepauk, Chennai, on April 3 and 11, until after the Tamil Nadu assembly elections.“What is your problem if the match is conducted tomorrow? What provision of law is violated if the matches are conducted,” asked the first bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan. “If you don’t want to watch the matches, don’t go. Sit at home. There is no compulsion to watch the matches,” the court added. The judges made the observations while rejecting a mention made by counsel for petitioner T Prabhakaran, a resident of Triplicane assembly constituency where the stadium is located.The petitioner wanted the court to direct authorities to strictly enforce the model code of conduct to ensure that there is no public display of any political party’s symbol, logo, flag, posters or any other material during the match. According to the petitioner, since the election process has commenced, the entire state machinery is under the control of the Election Commission of India (ECI), and the entire bureaucratic machinery is geared up to ensure free and fair elections. While so, permitting IPL matches at Chepauk stadium will burden Chennai police with providing security to the matches and players and maintaining law and order in and around the stadium, he said.“It is also pertinent to note that, considering the fact that the matches are viewed worldwide, there is also a viable possibility that political parties contesting elections may see to it that their supporters gather inside and outside the stadium in order to ensure propaganda for their respective parties and, in such circumstances, the same may result in clashes inside the stadium,” he said.
