CHENNAI: In what appears to be an unprecedented situation, no National Sports Federation (NSF) in the country will have the sports ministry’s recognition. The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the ministry to recall the order granting provisional renewal of recognition till September 30 to 54 NSFs. This is a yearly ritual, which makes NSFs eligible for government grants and assistance for training and competition. Because of the pandemic, most of the NSFs could not complete the formalities this year.
The court also asked the ministry to maintain status quo on granting recognition to three suspended federations — Indian Golf Union, School Games Federations of India and Rowing Federation of India. In an order on Wednesday, judges said the ministry tried to ‘overreach’ the court’s earlier order which made it mandatory to inform the court in advance “while seeking to take any decision in relation to the NSFs”.
The court observed that “the respondent No.1/MYSA has tried to overreach the order of this Court while proceeding to take the aforesaid decision even if it is provisional in nature, without first approaching the court and seeking its consent.” The court directed the ministry to “issue a fresh notice within two days intimating all the 54 NSFs concerned that its order giving provisional renewal till 30.09.2020, stands recalled”.
After petitioner Rahul Mehra drew the attention of the court to an affidavit proposing to grant recognition to three suspended NSFs, the court said status quo must remain after the ministry said this was only a proposal and no steps have been taken so far to restore the suspension. The affidavit was sent to court on June 16.