RCB challenges CAT order, moves Karnataka High Court over stampede fallout
IPL cricket team Royal Challengers Bengaluru has approached the Karnataka High Court against an order of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) blaming the team for the stampede near Chinnaswamy stadium, which claimed 11 lives.
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Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) has sought judicial relief after Central Administrative Tribunal’s (CAT) findings link team to Chinnaswamy Stadium stampede that claimed 11 lives. Following a ruling by the CAT, which held the IPL cricket team “prima facie responsible” for the fatal crowd crush outside Chinnaswamy Stadium, RCB has approached the Karnataka High Court.
CAT blamed the team for the stampede near Chinnaswamy stadium on June 4 that resulted in 11 deaths and dozens of injuries. As per CAT, the announcement was "sudden", giving no time to the police to prepare for the crowd of three to five lakh people.
"The RCB did not take the appropriate permission or consent from the Police. Suddenly, they posted on social media platforms and as a result of aforesaid information the public were gathered... the RCB created the aforesaid type of nuisance without any prior permission," CAT had said.
Now, RCB has formally petitioned the Karnataka High Court, moving to quash the CAT order.
It is to be noted that last month, the Karnataka High Court stepped in to provide interim legal relief to RCB and their event management partner DNA Entertainment Networks. The court temporarily restrained Bengaluru police from arresting or taking coercive action against officials of the two organizations, pending further investigation.
This judicial intervention comes amid growing debate over accountability for one of India’s deadliest crowd disasters in recent years. The stampede was sparked by a massive, unregulated turnout of nearly 5 lakh fans hoping to catch a glimpse of their cricketing heroes following RCB’s historic first IPL title in 18 years. The stadium, with a capacity of just 33,000, was vastly underprepared for the scale of the crowd.
The incident triggered a chain of blame with state authorities pointing fingers at the organizers for holding the event without proper intimation, and organizers countering that the State failed to deploy adequate crowd control measures despite being aware of the event’s scale.
Legal proceedings have since escalated. A criminal case was registered against RCB, DNA, and the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), which controls use of the stadium. While KSCA has already secured interim relief, officials of RCB and DNA, including RCB’s marketing head Nikhil Sosale, who were briefly detained, have been granted interim bail.
