The law Ministry on Monday submitted a draft Bill on dishonest practices in sporting events to the Sports Ministry to fine-tune the provisions which seek to punish match fixing and sports fixing for the first time under a separate law.
law Minister Kapil Sibal had stated on Saturday that a draft Bill that is in the “formative” stage will be finalised within three days and sent to the Sports Ministry for further consideration. The Sports Ministry is expected to take opinion from all stakeholders before finalising the provisions in the draft law.
law Ministry sources indicated that the dishonest practice in sports as an offence would be cognisable punishable with a minimum term of three years and upwards, depending on how far the act or signal resulted in changing the outcome or course of the game. Sources even stated that the proposed law also includes another set of offences where the player or team may win the game by a small margin that is sufficient for the team to lose in the next level of the game.
The broad aspects of the proposed law were discussed by law Minister Kapil Sibal with the leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley and IPl chairman Rajeev Shukla who had readily accepted the provisions of the new bill.
Dishonest practices as defined under the fresh law would include any contact, signal or act by the player with the bookie, corporate or any person off the field crowd which can change the course or outcome of the game. The comprehensive law will be broad based and will punish the player, bookie and corporate under single law.
The need for a new law was asserted by Attorney General GE Vahanvati who backed the Centre for enacting the law. Earlier, the Centre had sought his opinion on the limited question whether they had the jurisdiction to enact the law as 'sports' was listed under list II of the Constitution, to be dealt exclusively by the state.
Vahanvati clarified that the definition of sports under list II dealt with providing law and order, stadium facilities and anything to do with the preparation of the sporting event. He distinguished it from the subject "crime in sports" which does not find mention in the state list and hence the field was open for the Centre to legislate. In the light of the recent controversy of spot fixing in IPl, the Attorney General preferred enacting a fresh law to curb dishonest practices in sports over a mere amendment to the Indian Penal Code. This suggestion was accepted by paving the way for the proposed bill.