BCCI secy Jay Shah in Bahrain to attend ACC meet to decide on Pakistan's Asia Cup hosting rights
New Delhi, Feb 3: Indian cricket board secretary Jay Shah has flown to Bahrain where an emergent meeting of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) has been called at PCB chairman Najam Sethi's behest to decide fate of Pakistan's Asia Cup hosting rights.
If sources in the BCCI are to be believed, there is little to no chance of the Asia Cup being held in Pakistan in September.
If at all, the tournament will either be shifted to UAE with PCB retaining the hosting rights or Sri Lanka could be the other option.
"Jay is in Bahrain for the ACC meeting. The BCCI's stand will not change. We will not be travelling to Pakistan as we haven't got any go-ahead from the government," a BCCI source stated.
It is also understood that recent bomb blasts in Peshawar has again raised security concerns about holding cricket tournaments in Pakistan.
In December last year, ACC chairman Shah had released the itinerary of the continental body and the venue of Asia Cup wasn't mentioned.
This led to Sethi accusing Shah of taking "unilateral decision", an allegation that ACC officially refuted stating that repeated emails to PCB seeking recommendations on the itinerary went unanswered.
In October last year, Shah, who is also the supremo of ACC, had officially told the media that India will not travel to Pakistan.
The erstwhile PCB chief Ramiz Raja had back then threatened that Pakistan will not travel to India for this year's 50 over World Cup.
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May initiate contempt action if states, UTs non compliant against misleading ads: SC
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Wednesday warned states and union territories of contempt action if they failed to act against misleading advertisements.
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan perused a note submitted by senior advocate Shadan Farasat, who is assisting the apex court as an amicus curiae in the matter, and observed a number of states were non-compliant as indicated in the note.
"We make it clear that if we find non-compliance by any of the states and union territories, we may have to initiate proceedings under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, against the states concerned," the bench said.
The issue pertaining to misleading advertisements had cropped up before the top court while hearing a plea filed by the Indian Medical Association in 2022 alleging a smear campaign by Patanjali Ayurved Ltd against the Covid vaccination drive and modern systems of medicine.
The top court had highlighted the aspect of misleading advertisements being published or displayed in media contrary to the provisions of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954 and the rules, the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, and the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.
During the hearing on Wednesday, the amicus said as per the affidavits filed by the states and union territories so far, virtually no prosecution under the 1954 Act was taking place.
While Section 3 of the Act deals with prohibition of advertisement of certain drugs for treatment of certain diseases and disorders, Section 4 relates to prohibition of misleading advertisements of drugs.
The bench referred to affidavits filed by some of the states and questioned why they hadn't acted on the basis of complaints received.
Some states, it noted, found it difficult to identify the violaters.
"We will take contempt action now," the bench said, "and we will threadbare examine the compliance made by each states."
The bench said it would consider the compliance made by Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir on February 10.
And if these states wanted to file further affidavits reporting compliance, they were free to do so by February 3, it added.
The bench said compliance by states including Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab would be considered on February 24.
It said compliance regarding other states and union territories would be considered on March 17.
While hearing the matter in July last year, the apex court said the Ministry of Ayush should set up a dashboard to make available to the consumers the details about the complaints filed on misleading advertisements and the progress made on them.
In April last year, the top court asked the Centre and state licensing authorities to "activate" themselves to deal with misleading advertisements.
