The Archery Association of India was today askedby the Delhi High Court to follow the national sports code and send thenomination papers of the candidates for various posts in its upcoming electionto the returning officer and not to its president.
As per a notification, issued on September 22, the Archeryassociation has scheduled the election on October 28.
"Nomination papers to be personally delivered by thecandidates to the returning officer and not to association's president,"the bench of Chief Justice D Murugesan and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw saidwhile hearing a plea, which accused the association of not following theNational Sports Development Code.
The bench added that it would pass a detailed order later.
The association was to hold the election earlier onSeptember 29 but it has now been rescheduled to October 28.
The court's observation came after petitioner-cum-advocateRahul Mehra alleged that the association has not complied with the court'sSeptember 19 order to follow the sports code and asked for a court order forvideo recording of the entire poll process.
He further alleged that instead of sending the nominationpapers to returning officer Justice J D Kapoor, a retired high court judge, thesame were being sent to AAI President V K Malhotra against the sports codeprovisions.
Earlier, the bench had ordered the Sports Ministry to issueinstructions to the AAI to enforce the sports code while holding the election.The high court order has rendered the association's incumbent 80-year-oldPresident Malhotra ineligible to run the poll.
Seeking judicial intervention to rid the sports bodies ofthe country of various maladies, the petitioner had said that the AAI had heldits last election in February 2008 and it should have held its latest electionin February this year.
Alleging that AAI President Malhotra is instrumental for notholding the election, Mehra said "V K Malhotra is not conducting theelection as he would be ineligible to contest the next election of AAI."
The lawyer also sought the court's direction to the centreto de-recognise the sports body if it failed to conduct the poll as per thesports guidelines.