IPL team owners who have not furnished their shareholding patterns to the Registrar of Companies (RoC) may find themselves in court soon. The RoC, which is conducting a detailed probe into the structure of IPL franchises, is planning to initiate prosecution against these franchises in local courts. According to government sources, only three IPL teams have responded to RoC?s letters so far?Vijay Mallya-owned Royal Challengers Bangalore, Mukesh Ambani?s Mumbai Indians and the Deccan Chargers of Hyderabad.
?We are going to hold an internal meeting in the ministry of corporate affairs after we get the responses. However, we are yet to hear from all the teams,? an official source told FE. He added that under Section 209 of the Companies Act, the RoC can move court if teams fail to respond.
A senior official in the ministry, however, said the ministry would wait for another week before taking a decision. ?So far, there is no need to think that IPL teams would not respond. Let?s wait for another week and then we will see,? he said.
Last week, following the exit of minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor from the Cabinet, the RoC had sent detailed questionnaires to all IPL franchises, seeking details on their shareholding pattern, annual results of three previous years and details of sweat equity offered to any partner. Though the letter did not specify a deadline, it mentioned that all responses should be sent in on an urgent basis.
?We are looking to push the IPL teams to respond faster. We are following the developments closely,? a source said. He said that the government would not allow time extension to the teams. ?Why should they be given more time? By law, they should be maintaining all records. We just want a copy,? he added. Last week, RoC of Chandigarh had approached the local magistrate against Ness Wadia-Preity Zinta owned Kings XI Punjab over failure to maintain balance-sheets and file annual returns.