CHENNAI: In an interesting order, the Delhi High Court has said that the autonomy of sports bodies should be maintained and without any reason cannot assume or substitute the function of such bodies without strong ground.
This would mean not just the autonomy but even the function of such a body should be maintained. This arose when All India Football Federation (AIFF) challenged the formation of an ethics committee by single judge order as contended by respondent Churchill Brothers.
The Delhi HC judgement made by double bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhya and judge Tejas Karia said that the earlier judgement has been set aside and appeal of AIFF has been accepted on forming a new Ethics Committee.
"..we find that no cogent and compelling reasons existed which would have impelled, in our opinion, the learned Single Judge to substitute the members of the Ethics Committee constituted by the appellant – federation by the persons suggested by the learned Single Judge while passing the impugned judgment and order dated 01.04.2026," said the April 28 order. Accordingly, the order said, "In view of the discussions made and reasons given above, we find ourselves unable to agree with the impugned judgment and order passed by learned Single Judge and accordingly, the appeals are allowed and the impugned judgment and order dated 01.04.2026 passed by learned Single Judge in W.P.(C) 3981/2026 and W.P.(C) 4064/2026, is set aside."
The double bench said that they found the Churchill Brothers' contention that "reconstitution of the Ethics Committee made by the appellant is in violation of the Constitution of the appellant itself and therefore, subjecting the representations made by it to be decided by such a committee, will not be appropriate."
In this regard, we may observe that before learned Single Judge, there was no challenge by the respondent no.1 as to the reconstitution of the Ethics Committee made by the appellant. Thus, this submission made by the respondent no.1 also does not appeal to us, which merits rejection," said the order.