Mumbai, May 05: Raising questions over “conflict of interest” if a minister was a member of a cricket body, the Bombay High Court today directed impleading the Union Government in a PIL seeking levy of entertainment tax on IPL matches and allowed making Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar a party to the case.
A division bench of Justices P B Majmudar and R G Ketkar, while hearing the PIL filed by Shiv Sena leader Subhash Desai seeking a direction to the Maharashtra government to recover entertainment tax from IPL, asked the petitioner to make Pawar a party if he wanted to make allegations against him.
“If a minister holds a post in a cricket association, and the state cabinet is to decide on granting some exemption to the association…perhaps conflict of interest may arise,” the bench observed.
–Agencies