Two headlines last week—on the Delhi High Court staying the Volleyball Federation’s election and allowing the Rowing Federation’s election with a rider— seemed interesting. Even a cursory glance is enough to reveal how contrasting the two headlines have been. The high court said that the Volleyball Federation had violated provisions of the 2011 National Sports Development Code and the election process should be stalled; in the case of the Rowing Federation, the court has allowed them to go ahead with the election but instructed not to count or reveal the results. The ballots should be sealed in an envelope and submitted to the court. The court has also asked the RFI to file within a week whether they are sports-code-compliant. The RFI has also been asked to carry on reforms to align all state and district units with the sports code in the next 12 weeks. In short, a task that seems almost improbable in such a short time. The common thread that binds the two cases is, according to the petitioners, violation of the sports code not just by the national federations, but by the state and district units.
Both the court directives are based on an order dated August 16, 2022 in the case Rahul Mehra vs Union of India, where the Delhi High Court had said that national federations should comply with all the 13 points raised by the petitioner. In the past three years, more so after the pandemic, there have been a slew of court cases regarding national sports federations and their violation of the sports code. Quite a few federations were directed by the court to get their constitution aligned with the code—these included the national bodies governing sports such as table tennis, kabaddi, taekwondo, basketball, football and judo. Recently, the Wrestling Federation of India election, too, was stalled a day before polling.
The federations would be fretting now. The two orders will be giving sleepless nights to all national federations, as most of the state and district units in almost all federations do not comply with the sports code. And with elections, more court cases are expected. The federations must realise that they should either align their constitution with the code in toto or find a lasting solution. Otherwise, there will be scrutiny and court cases every time an election is called.