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As the Indian Premier League sinks deeper into the controversy of spot/match fixing allegations, the Government is set to bring in a standalone law to deal with dishonest practices in all kinds of national and international sporting events at the earliest.
The new law will deal with corporates, bookies, spectators and players, including international ones.
At a press conference here on Saturday, Law Minister Kapil Sibal said Attorney-General G.E. Vahanvati had endorsed a new standalone law instead of making amendments to the Indian Penal Code to deal with such dishonest practices as match fixing and spot fixing.
Sibal said the Attorney-General was also of the view that spot/match fixing did not come under the purview of the term ‘betting and gambling’ and that such malpractices needed to be dealt with in a “holistic and comprehensive manner”.
“We cannot let down millions of fans for whom cricket is a passion and is almost like a religion, though the law will not apply to cricket alone, but to all sports in which unfair practices are used to change the outcome,” he said.
Sibal said the law will be as broad as possible to deal with all kinds of unfair practices. He said in this age of technology, various methods can be used, even a gesture, which can change the course or the outcome of a match or a tournament. The proposed law will define all such unfair practices and offences, he added.
“We are committed to bring this law as soon as possible,” he said, adding that the Law Ministry hoped to have the draft ready in the next two-three days and would send it to the Sports Ministry for further deliberation and consultation with all stakeholders, including political parties. Sibal said the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley and IPL Chairman and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Planning Rajeev Shukla had met him and were also in favour of such a law. He said Jaitley was of the view that the nature of conspiracy in national and international sporting events was much bigger and regulation by States would not work.
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