Report No. 276

F. Draft Bill

5.79 The Ministry of Youth and Sports Affairs, Government of India drafted a Bill titled Prevention of Sporting Fraud Bill, 2013121 with the purpose to counter the fraud effecting the integrity and fair play in relation to sporting events. It criminalises sporting fraud and provides the punishment for the same.

5.80 The Bill defines sporting fraud as:

A person is said to commit the offence of sporting fraud in relation to a sporting event if he, directly or indirectly,-

(i) manipulates sports result, irrespective of whether the outcome is actually altered or not, or makes arrangement of an irregular alteration of the field of play or the result of a sporting event including its incidental events or deliberately misapplies the rules of the sport, in order to obtain any economic or any other advantage or benefits or promise of an advantage or benefits, for himself or for any other person so as to remove or reduce all or part of the uncertainty normally associated with the results of a sporting event; or

(ii) wilfully fails to perform to his true potential for economic or any other advantage or benefit for himself or for any other person unless such under performance can be attributed to strategic or tactical reason deployed in the interest of that sport or team; or

(iii) being in possession of inside information as a member, discloses such information to any person before or during any sporting event with the knowledge that disclosure of such information is likely to result in financial gain or is likely to be used in relation to betting or manipulation of a sporting event; or

(iv) omits to perform the duty imposed on him under section 4.

5.81 Section 4 of the Bill lays down the duty to inform in the following words:

Whoever gets any information as to the commission of any of the acts referred to in clauses (i) to (iii) of section 3, shall forthwith or within such time as may be prescribed, give the information regarding the same to the appropriate authority or the team management or the National Sport Federation, in writing:

Provided that the team management or National Sport Federation, as the case may be, shall inform the appropriate authority within three working days of receiving such information.

5.82 This Bill, however, still remains a draft and has not been introduced in either of the Houses of the Parliament.