HC refuses to vacate stay on election for office bearers in Kabaddi Federation

The Delhi High Court Friday refused to vacate, at this stage, a stay on the election for office bearers of the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI) that was to be held on September 1.

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar issued notice to Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, AKFI and A C Thangavel, a former Kabaddi player from Tamil Nadu, seeking their response on an appeal by the temporary president and vice-president of the federation against the order of a single judge.

The bench also issued notice on the application to stay the single judge's order and said the court was not going to interfere with it at this stage.

The single judge had on August 27, stayed the elections of AKFI on Thangavel's petition challenging the AKFI's three orders of August 7, 16 and 17 by which polls were notified by the administrator, electoral roll published and the objections raised by him dismissed without assigning any reasons.

Before the single judge, the petitioner, represented through advocates Rahul Mehra and R Arunadhri Iyer, said these orders were issued contrary to the National Sports Development Code of India, 2011 and the electoral roll had members who were not qualified to be a part of the electoral college.

The Friday's appeal filed by Kasani Gnaneshwar Mudiraj and K Jagdishwer Yadav, AKFI's temporary president and vice-president respectively, stated that the single judge's order is based on the ground that the electoral college, nominees of the affiliates from various states of the AKFI do not comply with the National Sports Development Code of India with respect to age and tenure.

Their counsel argued that the code applies only to the national federation and not to the state federations.

He said none of those who have been nominated for the elections are in violation of the sport code.

The appeal sought to set aside the single judge's August 27 interim order.

The petition before the single judge has said, "The sports Code requires sports bodies to be democratically governed by ensuring that its governing body is representative, and not a mere perpetuation of a particular person or set of persons."