CHENNAI: The National Sports Board (NSB) and the National Sports Tribunal (NST), the two governance arms of the sports ministry that was mandated through the National Sports Governance Act 2025, are yet to be formed. As pointed out by this daily, numerous legal issues could arise as a number of National Sports Federations (NSF) including the Indian Olympic Association have to conduct their elections by end of this year. This has led to a unique situation where the sports ministry had to invoke its discretionary powers to make changes in provisions of the Act.
The IOA will have 16 voting members in the executive committee, one more than the National Sports Governance Act 2025 mandates. This was formalized through an official gazette on Wednesday wherein the sports ministry invoked its discretionary powers to modify provisions in the Act. This newspaper had already reported on the day of the Special General Meeting that the number of EC members would be 15 elected ones and one International Olympic Committee member from India (Nita Ambani) all of them with voting rights. Initially, the IOA were mulling whether to cap the numbers in the EC to 14 plus one but the IOC has said that the number should remain unchanged – that is 15 plus one.
This daily has already pointed out multiple times in the past that there would be issues when NSFs are primarily guided by international charters and statutes. This is the first case. According to the ministry, it has received communication from the IOA that in compliance with the requirements of the Act, the Draft amended Constitution was sent to the IOC for their comments and they said that the EC members be kept unchanged. “The IOC has specifically recommended that the number of the Executive Council Members to be kept unchanged and shall remain independent of the number of IOC Member(s) in India,” the Gazette notification said.
“This would mean that besides the IOC Member(s), the Executive Council comprises of 15 (fifteen) members. The IOA has sought grant of exemption, relaxations and/or issuing such clarifications as may be necessary and permissible under Sections 34 and 37 of the Act, to enable the IOA to comply with the applicable requirements of the Olympic Charter and IOC Regulations while continuing to adhere to the governance principles and other requirements of the Act.”
The ministry further noted on the Gazette that “…in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 37(2) of the Act, and subject to the conditions specified herein, the Central Government hereby clarifies that, requirements prescribed under Section 4(1)(b) of the Act shall not apply to the Indian Olympic Association to the extent necessary to accommodate the IOC Member(s) in India…”
Section 4 1 (b) in the Act states that an Executive Committee shall consist of not more than fifteen members including the ex officio member.
Election panel formed
The sports ministry also formed a 20-member election panel on Thursday. This was also notified in the Gazette of India. This was necessitated as some of the high-profile NSFs should be conducting their elections by the end of the year. Interestingly, the ministry had to invoke Section 38 of the Act here. According to the NSGA, the NSB — that would give recognition to all NSFs and National Olympic Committee (IOA) — should form the election panel but as of now it has not been formed. This has led to “the National Sports Board has not yet been constituted under the said Act; And whereas, in the absence of the constitution of the National Sports Board, a difficulty has arisen in giving effect to the provisions of section 16 of the said act relating to the notification of the National Sports Election Panel,” said the Gazette in its notification.
A number of NSFs have to conduct elections and prominent among them are All India Football Federation, All India Tennis Association, Hockey India, Judo Federation of India, IOA.
So the sports ministry is exercising “the powers conferred by section 38 of the National Sports Governance Act, 2025 (25 of 2025), the Central Government hereby makes the following Order to remove the aforesaid difficulty” and would be called “Short title and commencement.— (1) This Order may be called the National Sports Governance (Removal of Difficulties) Order, 2026… For the purposes of section 16 of the National Sports Governance Act, 2025 (25 of 2025), and until the National Sports Board is constituted under the said Act, the Central Government may notify the National Sports Election Panel without the recommendations of the National Sports Board.”
That means the panel would be named without the board’s scrutiny. What happens if the board did not agree with all the names on the panel? Not just the board, even the tribunal members too have not been selected as yet.