MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court has quashed all hopes for cash-strapped Deccan Chronicles Holdings Limited (DCHL) by setting aside the status quo order passed by the arbitrator granting relief to its IPL team Deccan Chargers.

In a double whammy, the court had also refused to grant any interim relief to DCHL against termination of its franchise agreement by the BCCI. The Court said that the legality of the termination would be decided by the arbitrator.

With this order, Deccan Chargers termination from IPL stands as was the case on 12 October when the franchise had failed to furnish Rs 1 billion bank guarantee following which it was ousted from the season 6 of IPL.

Justice RD Dhanuka quashed the status quo order passed by the arbitrator after hearing a petition filed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). While passing the order, Justice Dhanuka said that the arbitrator is not "superior" to the high court and cannot pass an order which overrides the high court?s direction.

"Arbitrator had no jurisdiction to grant status quo. On the same day (12 October), the high court had denied extension of time to DCHL to furnish Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) bank guarantee as directed by the court on October 1," Justice Dhanuka said.

He also said that once the Court has rejected relief, the plea made before the arbitrator is not maintainable.

Justice Dhanuka also noted that the order passed by Justice SJ Kathwala on 1 October directing DCHL to furnish bank guarantee was "self operative and protective of the interests of both DCHL and BCCI".

He refused to grant any relief to DCHL since it has still not been able to furnish bank guarantee. "DCHL has still not furnished bank guarantee. Hence there is no change in circumstances to grant relief to DCHL. No case is made out for interim relief for granting stay on termination. The application seeking stay is a gross abuse of law," Justice Dhanuka said.

The DCHL had on Wednesday requested the court to grant relief contending that the termination of Deccan Chargers was not anybody?s interest whether it is owners, players or lenders. It also pointed out that DCHL has till now invested Rs 6 billion in the franchise.

Retired Supreme Court Judge C K Thakkar, who was last month appointed as the arbitrator, had passed an order last week directing BCCI not to go ahead with its termination of Deccan Chargers following which the BCCI challenged the order in High Court and secured a stay.

Backed by its lenders, DCHL had said that it was ready to furnish bank guarantee by 9 October as directed by the court on 1 October. However, it could not furnish bank guarantee by the designated time following which the court granted it three more days to furnish the amount.

Despite extension of deadline, DCHL was unable to furnish irrevocable and unconditional bank guarantee of Rs 1 billion by 12 October which led to its termination from the IPL after the court refused to grant more time to DCHL to furnish bank guarantee.

The Court had said in its 1 October order that the BCCI?s termination notice would stand if DCHL fails to furnish bank guarantee. The interim relief provided by the arbitrator also proved short lived as the court stayed the status quo order passed by the arbitrator extending deadline for submitting bank guarantee.

With termination notice standing, the DCHL?s attempt to sell the franchise to Mumbai-based real estate firm Kamla Landmarc proved a non-starter. Kamla Landmarc is believed to have committed Rs 12.5 billion for acquiring the franchise.

The DCHL plea comes on a day when IPL Governing Council is meeting in Mumbai to discuss the termination of Deccan Chargers and the fate of the players since 31 October is the deadline for resigning players.

Earlier, the BCCI had floated tenders for a new franchise after terminating Deccan Chargers.The tender notice for a fresh franchise invites bids in respect of 12 cities including Ahmedabad, Cuttack, Dharamsala, Indore, Kanpur, Kochi, Nagpur, Noida, Rajkot, Ranchi, Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam.

MUMBAI: The last word on the BCCI-Deccan Chargers has not been said yet as the Bombay High Court Wednesday reserved its order till tomorrow on an appeal filed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

The BCCI had approached Bombay HC challenging the ‘status quo‘ order passed by an arbitrator in its dispute with financially distressed Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited (DCHL). The hearing on the issue was today.

Retired Supreme Court Judge C K Thakkar, who was last month appointed as the arbitrator, had last week passed an order directing BCCI not to go ahead with its termination of Deccan Chargers following which the BCCI challenged the order in High Court and secured a stay.

Earlier Deccan Chargers had faced termination from the IPL following DCHL?s inability to furnish irrevocable and unconditional bank guarantee of Rs 1 billion by 12 October.

Backed by its lenders, DCHL said that it was ready to furnish bank guarantee as directed by the court on 1 October. DCHL lenders have also filed a plea seeking interim relief against the termination of the franchise.

The Court had on 12 October refused to grant more time to DCHL to furnish bank guarantee after the company failed to meet the deadline for furnishing bank guarantee contending.

The Court had said that the BCCI‘s termination notice would stand if DCHL fails to furnish bank guarantee. The interim relief provided by the arbitrator also proved short lived as the court stayed the status quo order passed by the arbitrator extending deadline for submitting bank guarantee.

With termination notice standing, the DCHL‘s attempt to sell the franchise to Mumbai-based real estate firm Kamla Landmarc proved a non-starter. Kamla Landmarc is believed to have committed Rs 12.5 billion for acquiring the franchise.

The DCHL plea comes on a day when IPL Governing Council is meeting in Mumbai to discuss the termination of Deccan Chargers and the fate of the players since 31 October is the deadline for resigning players.

Earlier, the BCCI had floated tenders for a new franchise after terminating Deccan Chargers.

MUMBAI: After BCCI terminated Deccan Chargers and floated a tender for a new IPL franchise, it is the IPL Governing Council which has decided to meet here on 17 October to chalk out future strategy for the tournament.

IPL GC is expected to discuss the termination of Deccan Chargers for breach of contract.

The meeting also holds significance since it is happening at a time when the 31 October deadline of re-signing players is looming large. All the franchises are expected to renew contracts with their existing players.

"There is a meeting of the IPL Governing Council in Mumbai on October 17th. I don?t know any other details," said BCCI CAO Prof Ratnakar Shetty.

IPL GC is made up of Chairman Rajeev Shukla, Arun Jaitley, Anirudh Chaudhary, Dr G Ganga Raju, Sanjay Patel, Amitabh Choudhary, Ravi Shastri and M P Pandove.

The Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited (DCHL), the parent company of Deccan Chargers, was unable to furnish a bank guarantee of Rs 1 billion which meant that its association with IPL ended. The Court had clearly said that the termination notice will stand if DCHL fails to provide Rs 1 billion unconditional and irrevocable bank guarantee.

Following DCHL?s inability to furnish bank guarantee as per Court direction, the arbitrator had passed a status order thereby throwing a lifeline at the beleagured media company.

The status order passed by the arbitrator also gave five more days to DCHl to furnish bank guarante despite the Bombay HC refusing to entertain their plea to extend the deadline. The BCCI had obtained a stay order from the Bombay HC against arbitrators decision thereby dashing its hopes of entering IPL.

The DCHL had on Friday also announced that it was in talks with real estate firm Kamla Lanmarc to sell the franchise. However the deal could go for a toss now that the termination notice is in effect.

The BCCI had on Sunday invited tenders for a new IPL team.

The tender notice for a fresh franchise invites bids for 12 cities: Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Cuttack, Dharamsala, Indore, Kanpur, Kochi, Nagpur, Noida, Rajkot, Ranchi and Visakhapatnam.

The last date for submission of the bids is 25 October. Bids can be collected from today. Under this invitation to tender, the winning bidder will be granted the right to own and operate a new team which will compete in the IPL from 2013 onwards.

MUMBAI: After terminating the Deccan Chargers, the BCCI has invited tenders for a new IPL team.

The tender notice for a fresh franchise invites bids for 12 cities: Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Cuttack, Dharamsala, Indore, Kanpur, Kochi, Nagpur, Noida, Rajkot, Ranchi and Visakhapatnam.

Earlier, after a month long legal battle, Deccan Chargers lost their status as an IPL team after the Bombay High Court stayed the order of Arbitrator for maintaining status quo on the matter till further hearing.

The last date for submission of the bids is 25 October. Bids can be collected from today. Under this invitation to tender, the winning bidder will be granted the right to own and operate a new team which will compete in the IPL from 2013 onwards.

The BCCI has said that it has reserved the right to cancel or amend the entire bidding process at any stage and to reject any and all bids without proving any reason. Merely buying the tender document for Rs 500,000 does not entitle the purchase to bid. The bidding parties need to fulfill the eligibility criteria and other requirements mentioned in the tender document.

MUMBAI: In yet another twist to the legal battle between Deccan Chargers and BCCI, the Bombay High Court has stayed arbitrator‘s status quo order granting more time to Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited (DCHL) to furnish Rs 1 billion bank guarantee.

The BCCI had challenged arbitrator CK Thakkar‘s status quo order saying that he has exceeded his jurisdiction by issuing that order. Retired Justice CK Thakkar had Friday passed an interim order granting financially ailing DCHL time till 17 October to furnish bank guarantee. The arbitrator‘s order came even as the Bombay High Court had refused to extend deadline after DCHL failed to provide bank guarantee before 5 pm.

The BCCI said today that the termination of Deccan Chargers stands as per the High Court‘s stay order. "Notwithstanding the Hon?ble High Court?s refusal to extend time to DCHL, the Learned Arbitrator passed the Order of Status quo last evening (12.10.2012). BCCI moved an appeal against the Order of Arbitrator and the same was heard today morning. The Hon?ble High Court was pleased to stay the Order of Arbitrator after hearing both the parties," India‘s cricket board said today.

"The termination of Deccan Chargers franchise was challenged in the Hon?ble Bombay High Court by the DCHL pending the arbitration. A Conditional Order of stay was granted by the Hon?ble High Court pending arbitration on 1st October 2012. The condition to give BCCI a Bank Guarantee of a Nationalized Bank for ` 100 Crores by 5.00 p.m. on 12.10.2012 to cover expenses of IPL ? 6, was breached by DCHL," the BCCI said in a statement.

The court refused to grant extension to DCHL since it had already granted one on 9 October by giving the beleagured company three days time to furnish bank guarantee which would helped it book a place in season 6 of the IPL.

The court had on 1 October granted a conditional order of stay pending arbitration after DCHL challenged termination of Deccan Chargers franchise.

The failure to furnish bank guarantee meant that the termination of Deccan Chargers stands even as the company said that it has got a buyer in Mumbai-based Kamla Landmarc Real Estate Holdings Private Limited, which is believed to have committed Rs 10 billion for the beleagured franchise.

The Bombay High Court had on 26 September Justice Thakkar as arbitrator to resolve within three months the dispute between the Cricket Board BCCI and DCHL over termination of the company?s IPL franchise Deccan Chargers.

MUMBAI: The financially-distressed owners of IPL franchise Deccan Chargers on Friday failed to provide a bank guarantee to BCCI as directed by the Bombay High Court causing the IPL team‘s termination to continue. The dispute over the termination of the IPL franchise will now be adjudicated by an arbitrator appointed by the court.

Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd (DCHL) has, however, found a new buyer for Deccan Chargers in Mumbai-based Kamla Landmarc Real Estate Holdings Private Limited. But it will have to wait for the arbitration proceedings to begin before it can rest easy on its chance of completing its agreement with the real estate developer to sell the Hyderabad-based IPL team. DCHL did not disclose the price at which it has agreed to sell the IPl team to Kamala Landmarc, but reports estimated it to be around Rs 10 billion.

DCHL failed to provide the Rs 1 billion bank guarantee to BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) even after the court granted three additional days on its request, ending the possibility of its team‘s participation in the sixth season of IPL in 2013.

Justice S J Kathawala declined to extend the deadline for furnishing the bank guarantee for the second time saying that it had earlier accommodated DCHL by extending the deadline by three days.

The High Court had on 1 October ruled that the BCCI had acted in haste by terminating the franchise agreement of Deccan Chargers while directing the franchise to furnish an irrevocable and unconditional bank guarantee of Rs 1 billion within 10 days. The court had clarified that the order will cease to be in effect after DCHL fails to furnish the bank guarantee.

Deccan Chargers would have been allowed to participate in the season 6 of the IPL and renew contracts with players had they managed to submit bank guarantee. All the franchises are expected to renew contracts with players before 31 October.

The court has appointed retired Supreme Court judge C K Thakkar as the sole arbitrator to adjudicate in the dispute between BCCI and DCHL. It had directed that the two parties must complete arbitration within three months.

Earlier in the day, DCHL had announced that it has agreed to sell its IPL franchise to Kamala Landmarc. DCHL informed the bourses that its board, which met on Thursday, has resolved to "sell, transfer/dispose of the Deccan Chargers Franchise business undertakings/business division of the company to Kamla Landmarc Real Estate Holdings Private Limited".

The BCCI had on 14 September terminated the franchise agreement of Deccan Chargers after DCHL rejected PVP Ventures lone bid of Rs 9 billion despite the bidder meeting the eligibility criteria of the BCCI. DCHL had rejected the bid by PVP Ventures, also a real estate firm, over payment terms.

PVP Ventures had bid after DCHL under the aegis of the cricket board invited tenders for purchase of the Hyderabad franchise in order to ease its financial difficulties. The sale of Deccan Chargers is critical for DCHL to cut down its debt which is estimated to be in the range of Rs 42 billion.