On Tuesday, Sports Ministry and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has decided to move an SLP in Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court order restricting ministry from taking any decision without consulting the court.
The matter is related to a plea filed by advocate Rahul Mehra in 2010 seeking directions to the centre government to ensure that the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and National Sports Federations (NSFs).
In February 2020, Delhi High Court has barred has the spots ministry from taking any decision on NSFs without taking consultation from the court. Therefore, the ministry had to withdraw the recognition granted to 56 NSFs, leading to hampering their administration of various sports.
“We are filing a Special Leave Petition in a day or two. We are challenging the Delhi HC order (which has told ministry) not to take any decision relating to sports federations without informing it,” told the ministry.
Besides that, IOA President Narinder Batra and Secretary Rajeev Mehta has also submitted a short joint statement mentioning that they are going to approach Supreme Court with a Special Leave Petition as it is also a party in the case.
“We (IOA) are planning to soon approach Hon’ble Supreme Court in relation to Rahul Mehra case,” said the joint statement issued.
On August 7, Sports Ministry had requested Delhi High Court to revise the order and allow at least the grant of recognition to the NSFs. But the court rejected the petition and asked to submit a National Sports Code compliance report.
Later, the ministry has circulated a questionnaire to the NSF seeking age and tenure details of their officer bearers. 56 NSFs have responded in total and the matter was to come up for hearing before HC on August 21. However, the date has been pushed to September 18.
