Twist in sponsor, IHF row
OUR LEGAL REPORTER

Calcutta: The legal tussle in the Calcutta High Court between the old committee of the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), chaired by K.P.S. Gill and Leisure Sports Management (LSM), the marketing group for Sahara India Limited, took a new turn Monday when Justice Indira Banerjee ordered Sahara to deposit Rs 2.11 crore as the due sponsorship amount in suspense account till further notice.

The order was based on an appeal by the IHF’s old committee, which alleged that in February 2008, LSM had obtained an interim order from the court by “suppressing some facts”.

Through the interim order, the court had stayed operation of a notice issued by the committee that the Indian hockey team would play international matches without the “Sahara” logo on the jersey.

The Gill-led committee, in its petition before Justice Banerjee, notified that LSM had “deliberately” not responded while obtaining the order from the court.

The lawyer for Sahara and LSM said his clients had no intention of flouting the agreement and “if the logo was used on jerseys and kits they have no objection to paying the amount. But which committee needs to be paid has to be decided first.”

The lawyer appearing for the ad hoc committee claimed it had the authority to run the federation and to ask the company to hand over the money to them.

Courtesy: Telegraph