SC rejects order asking Tamil Nadu to hold Formula 4 racing event in future
This story was originally published at 21:10 IST on 20 February 2025
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NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected an order by the Madras High Court asking the Tamil Nadu government to take upon the responsibility of conducting Formula 4 racing event in the future. The top court also rejected the high court's order directing Racing Promotions Pvt. Ltd., which had conducted the event last year, to reimburse the expenditure of INR 420 million made by the state government.
The apex court also rejected the order that asked the state government to ensure that Racing Promotions should deposit in advance the stipulated expenditure of INR 150 million for the upcoming two years for the event in Chennai. The top court set aside the order that said Racing Promotions cannot expect anything more than facilitation and arrangements from the state authorities, and the expenditure for the event will have to be completely borne by the company.
The apex court said that once the high court was satisfied that the decision to hold the sports event was a matter of policy, it could not have proceeded to interfere with the specific terms of the memorandum of understanding entered into between the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu and Racing Promotions. Issues such as the mutual obligations, including the apportionment of expenditure that the contracting parties must bear, are beyond the scrutiny of the high court in a public interest litigation, said the court.
The high court's direction to call upon the state itself to take up the responsibility of conducting such sports events ignores the principle of public-private partnership adopted by governments across the globe as a matter of good governance, which takes into account the limited resources of the state coupled with issues of efficiency and expertise, said the apex court.
The case has its genesis from various public interest litigations filed against holding Formula 4 races in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Although the high court had permitted conducting the event, it had issued certain directions against the company and the state government. End
Reported by Surya Tripathi
Edited by Ashish Shirke
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