HC upholds order that allowed only sportspersons to head sports bodies

The Madras High Court on Tuesday observed that only sportspersons and not politicians and others should be office-bearers of sports associations and federations and upheld a single judge order in this connection.

The first bench of the High Court upheld an order of a single judge, which among other things had held that sports organisations must be headed by sports persons alone.

The bench of Chief Justice M N Bhandari and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy upheld the single judge order while dismissing a writ appeal from the Tamil Nadu Olympic Association.

While disposing of a writ petition from S Nithya, a champion in 'Discus Throw' who was not selected to participate in the national tournaments during 2017-18, even though she was fully qualified, Justice R Mahadevan on January 19 had directed the Tamil Nadu government to consider creating a legal framework that imposes statutory regulation on the functioning of every sports organisations, clubs and associations, including the state unit of the National Sports Federation (NSF) in respect of every field of sports.

He had also held that the positions of president, vice-president and secretary of every sports association and organisation as well as important functionaries, including that of the state unit of the NSF shall be held only by sportspersons and it must be ensured that a minimum of 75 per cent of the members of any sports body or organisation or association or NSF shall be composed of eminent persons from the field of sports and that they shall have voting rights.

The selection of athletes shall be within the purview of the decision-making powers of the selection committee consisting only of sportspersons in the respective association as well as the sports federation. No person shall be entitled to hold the position of president, VP, secretary or any other important post in any such associations as well as the federation on the only ground that he or she had contributed financially to the same. Holding of such a position shall be strictly governed by the Constitution of the respective organisation, which shall clearly set out the procedure for election of the office-bearers, the judge had said.

Aggrieved, the TNOA preferred the present writ appeal.

Dismissing it, the bench observed that only sportspersons and not politicians/businessmen should be the office-bearers of sports clubs, associations and federations.