Supreme Court appoints ex-apex court judge to finalise AIFF constitution

The Supreme Court on Tuesday appointed former apex court judge Justice L. Nageswara Rao to take over the task of finalising the draft constitution of the All India Football Federation (AIFF), scrutinising objections and suggestions from stakeholders, and submit a comprehensive report by July 31.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud and comprising Justice J.B, Pardiwala said: "we are of the considered view that similar exercise was carried out under the orders of this court in relation to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) by Justice L. Nageswara Rao. It would be appropriate to entrust the task of finalizing the constitution to the former judge of this court.

"Many of the objections which have been raised here would find a considerable degree of overlap in the proceedings which took place in IOA for the former apex court judge. In the circumstances, we request Justice Rao, to take up the task of considering the draft constitution as proposed by Committee of Administrators (CoA) and now which is being propounded by amicus curiae."

The bench said in preparing his report, Justice Rao is requested to hear all the stakeholders and the exercise of considering the draft constitution and submitting the comprehensive report.

During the hearing on Tuesday, the bench noted that since the matter involved not only legal points but also sports policy, it would be prudent to let Justice Rao finalise the draft AIFF constitution.

After the submission of the report, the apex court would take up the task of finalising the AIFF constitution.

Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, amicus curiae in the matter, submitted a tabulated chart before the court elaborating on provisions of the draft constitution, name of the stakeholders who had objected, commented, or suggested anything, and the nature of the objections thus made.

--IANS

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