Volleyball
Volleyball Federation fails to pay court-ordered fee of Rs 2 crores basis wrongful termination case
Dues now add up to INR 6 Crore on non-compliance to a conditional order
The Indian volleyball team (Source: Olympics)
On October 29th basis non-compliance to conditional order, the Volleyball Federation failed to deposit a fee of Rs 2 crores to Madras High Court.
In order for the court to hear their petition challenging the earlier arbitration judgement awarded in favour of Baseline ventures.
The amount now stands at INR 6 crores which VFI needs to pay to Baseline Ventures. Additionally, the stay application by VFI has been dismissed by the court.
This is the basis prior order in a case delivered by a sole arbitrator, Mr. Justice K. Kannan (Retd.,) set up on the orders of the Madras High Court, on Baseline Venture(India) Pvt Ltd's claim against the termination of their agreement by the Volleyball Federation of India on 18th Nov 2019, the National Federation were to pay Rs. 4 Crores as compensation and Rs. 5 lakhs in legal fees. With that, an additional 12% interest from the date of commencement of arbitral proceedings till the date of payment.
The landmark judgement was delivered by Justice Kannan after almost ten months of hearings and submissions by both parties. All the allegations by VFI against Baseline pertaining to the breach of contract were dismissed & it was categorically stated that the termination was not justified.
In fact, the judgement clearly says that if VFI only had the interest of the players in mind and for fostering the sport as popular entertainment to the public, it ought to have known that there was too big a price to close all options & terminate the agreement.
The judgements further dismissed the counterclaim of Rs. 14.93 crores made by the VFI against Baseline Ventures.
The 2 bank accounts of VFI in the Indian Overseas Bank, Chennai have already been attached to the court of the Chennai High Court for the recovery of the arbitration award to Baseline.
VFI at the last count owes close to 6 crores to be paid to Baseline as damages for illegal termination of its 2018 contract between them basis the arbitration award granted by the arbitrator, Justice Kannan of Madras High Court.
VFI faction led by Ramjakhar & its new secy general Anil Choudhary is already engaged in multiple legal battles with BJP MP, Anil Agarwal with respect to which faction of VFI is the deserving group to carry on the office of VFI after 2 elections were held by them in 2020.
