Thinley Namgay

The Samtse dzongkhag court recently dismissed the case related to the alteration of the runners-up prize during the 2022 Druk Super Star Archery Championship from an electric scooter to a bow.  

It took almost a year for the Samtse dzongkhag court to render judgment on this case.

The court ruled that the players from Team Choglay Namgyal acknowledged and accepted the alteration, as it was also discussed on the live BBS discussion. The judgment stated that the appellant did not have sufficient evidence to prove that the organiser had made last-minute changes to the prizes.

The judgment mentioned that the Prime Bow, awarded to the runners-up as a prize, costs Nu 95,000. “This is a testament that the organiser fulfilled his promise to the team to provide the second position prize, ranging between Nu 90,000 and Nu 100,000.” 

Team Captain Sonam Penjor from Choglay Namgyal said, “The team is not satisfied with the judgment, but we don’t want to re-appeal.” He added that it took a long time to get the judgment and mentioned, “Besides that, we also don’t have good legal knowledge, and we have to depend on others.”

Organiser Kencho Wangdi said that he cannot reveal whether he is going to sue the team for defamation within 10 days or leave the case. “The appellant’s primary intention was not to win the case but to defame me. He already knows that he will lose the case.”

The runners-up team, Choglay Namgyal, filed a case in December last year charging the coordinator Kencho Wangdi of changing the runners-up prize to a bow instead of an electric scooter. 

Captain Sonam Peljor, who works in Samtse, filed the case on behalf of the team.

The team charged the organiser for deception, last-minute alteration, and demanded the actual prize. However, the court found that the organiser had informed the team about the change in the prize, and the team agreed.  

The team submitted to the court that the promised prize for the second position was an electric scooter each but was changed to a Prime bow, which is Nu 15,000 less than the third prize Cha-Zhu bow. 

On July 25 last year, it was announced on BBS that each team had to pay an entry fee of Nu 19,500, and the winner would be taken on a 25-day tour of Australia, followed by an electric scooter for the first runners-up, and a Cha-Zhu bow for the third position.  

The team said that Kencho Wangdi informed them suddenly on October 29 last year that he couldn’t provide an electric scooter as there were no sellers. The team said the organiser assured the team that the second prize would be worth more than the third prize. 

Kencho Wangdi said the government had banned the import of two-wheelers, and there were no electric vehicle sellers at the time.  

Kencho Wangdi said that the cost of a third prize Cha-Zhu bow is Nu 105,000 in the market, but he had a deal with the proprietor of Cha-Zhu bow to promote the product. “I got a discount of Nu 25,000 for each bow, which comes to Nu 80,000. I calculated the second prize based on this.” 

Kencho Wangdi said that if the team was concerned about the prize, they should have told him when he asked them about the change of prize. “None of them asked me.”