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Informist, Thursday, Jul. 16, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal has issued a notice to Absolute Legends Sports Pvt. Ltd., operator of Legends Cricket League, on JioStar India Pvt. Ltd's insolvency plea. JioStar India is a joint venture company formed by Reliance Industries Ltd. and The Walt Disney Company. The appellate tribunal listed JioStar India's plea for hearing on Jul. 31.

 

Earlier, the Delhi bench of the National Company Law Tribunal had rejected JioStar India's insolvency plea against Absolute Legends for dues of INR 35.91 million and undeposited tax deducted at source arising out of performance of contractual obligations and applicable laws. The tribunal said that the media rights agreements shown by JioStar India suffered from material deficiencies. The agreements are not duly executed between the parties, and the execution date, as contemplated therein, remains undefined, the tribunal said. The ambiguity surrounding the execution, coupled with the absence of proper signatures and clarity as to when the agreements came into force, raises serious doubts as to whether these documents were contemporaneously executed, or subsequently created to retrospectively characterise past transactions as "services" so as to bring them within the ambit of operational debt, said the tribunal. 

 

Challenging the Delhi tribunal's order, JioStar India moved the appellate tribunal. JioStar India said that the agreement between the parties was duly signed by Ankush Mahajan, the head of litigation of JioStar. However, this aspect has not been considered by the Delhi tribunal and, therefore, the very basis of the order is not perceived in the right perspective, the appellate tribunal noted. 

 

JioStar India and Absolute Legends entered into a media rights agreement and an agreement for airtime sale in 2024 in relation to media rights for the 2023–2025 franchise editions and the 2025 regional edition of the Legends League Cricket Masters T20 tournament. Under the agreements, Absolute Legends granted JioStar India exclusive television, digital, and ancillary rights in respect of the league, subject to the terms therein. JioStar India agreed to provide Absolute Legends with free commercial airtime during live transmissions of the league across its channels. Further, JioStar India undertook to produce unilateral commentary in Hindi for the 2023 franchise edition of the league, and in regional language as mutually agreed between the parties for the 2024 franchise edition. However, JioStar India alleged that Absolute Legends did not pay its dues, against which the petitioner moved the Delhi tribunal.

 

Thursday, the shares of Reliance Industries Ltd. closed 0.1% higher at INR 1,296.60 on the National Stock Exchange.  End

  

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

 

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