This is a sheer waste of the court’s time…, CJI angry at the petition demanding to stop the cricket team from being called ‘Team India’

New Delhi. The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed as ‘meritless’ a plea seeking to stop public broadcaster Prasar Bharati from calling the BCCI cricket team as ‘Team India’. A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul M Pancholi upheld the Delhi High Court’s October 8 order, which had dismissed the PIL filed by lawyer Ripak Kansal.

The bench said, “You just sit at home and start drafting the petition. What’s the problem with all this? Do not burden the court.” The petition had argued that calling the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) as ‘Team India’ or ‘Indian cricket team’ misleads the public and violates laws related to the use of national symbols.

It claimed that being a private institution, the BCCI should not be called ‘Team India’, “especially when there is no approval from the Government of India.” The bench said, “This is a sheer waste of the court’s and your time… What is this logic?” Are you saying that the team does not represent India? They are misleading about the team that is going everywhere and playing? Forget BCCI, if Doordarshan or any other authority shows it as Team India, then is it not Team India?