BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court has declined to interfere with the state government’s policy for conferment of the Ekalavya awards.
“The ball of conferment of awards has not gone out of play for this court as a referee to interfere and tell the state how to manage conferment of awards,” said Justice M Nagaprasanna while dismissing the petition filed by a young roller skater.
The petitioner questioned the 2015 guidelines issued by the state for the award/allocation of marks for participation in the national championship on par with marks allotted for participation in the senior national championship.
The petitioner is a champion in roller skating, a non-olympic sport. Seniors or juniors who participate in Olympic events are given higher recognition. He has not challenged the differentiation of Olympic and non-Olympic sporting events, but the bifurcation of senior and junior on the grounds that the state kept away from consideration of junior-level national championships by 100 per cent and awarding nominal marks for juniors.
The court, however, said no fault can be found with the bifurcation of marks for seniors or juniors.