The Bombay high court on Thursday urged ESPN-Star Sports and Zee Television to submit fresh bids to the Registrar General of the high court and said the highest bidder would bag the telecast rights of national and international cricket matches to be played in India between October 2004 and September 2008.
The suggestion came from a Bench of Chief Justice D S Bhandari and Justice D Y Chandrachud who were hearing a petition filed by ESPN-Star Sports challenging the decision of Board of Control for Cricket in India to award telecast rights to Zee TV Network.
The bench gave its suggestion after both the parties showed their willingness to submit fresh bids following BCCI's submission that Zee as well as ESPN were equally eligible to bag the telecast rights.
However, Zee's counsel told the court that he would respond to its suggestion in the post-lunch hearing proceedings. The judges then adjourned the matter till 1445 hrs.
The judges also ruled that if Zee decided to agree to the court's suggestion, it should submit fresh bid and the court would sit on September 15 to open the bids and declare the highest bidder.
But if Zee TV network did not agree to the court's suggestion of submitting fresh bids, the bench would hear arguments of both the parties on September 16.
