SC suspends stay on Premier Badminton League

The Supreme Court on Wednesday cleared the decks for holding of Premier Badminton League (PBL) tournament featuring ace shuttlers like Saina Nehwal, P V Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth, Parupalli Kashyap and others which will go as scheduled by lifting the stay imposed by the High Court of Meghalaya.

“The stay is suspended,” a bench comprising Justices M Y Eqbal and C Nagappan said while allowing the plea of Badminton Association of India (BAI) which had rushed to the apex court against the High Court order staying the league scheduled from January 2 to 17.

The high court had put a stay on PBL, formerly known as Indian Badminton League (IBL), after Sobhagaya Media Private Limited, one of the franchisee for Shillong, had challenged the validity of the franchisee meet held in New Delhi on December 6 without inviting it to participate in the same. The PBL will have 18 matches involving six franchises and several international players along with national stars.

Sobhagaya Media Private Limited had contended that the auction conducted by the BAI on December 7 was arbitrary and illegal.