Indian GP court threat averted

This weekend's Indian Grand Prix is to go ahead without hindrance, after a hearing into a legal challenge was delayed.

The Supreme Court was due to hear on Friday a complaint lodged against race organisers for alleged non payment of entertainment taxes for last year's Formula 1 event.

The activist behind the petition wanted this weekend's Indian GP cancelled over the matter.
However, according to local news agency reports, the court decided to delay looking into the matter until a later date.

Vicky Chandhok, the boss of India's motorsport federation, had said on Thursday that he was confident that the courts would not rule in favour of the grand prix being stopped.

"You do find the odd persons going out to try to stop sporting events - be it cricket or whatever," Chandhok said.

"It has happened before and it is nothing new to this country.

"We are the world's largest democracy and filing a public interest litigation [PIL] in any court is possible.

"However, the courts by themselves are just a system, and the judges do not take kindly to a sporting event being stopped, especially on the eve of the event."