A judgement of High Court of Delhi has paved the way for elections to the Executive Committees of National Sports Federations without waiting for each affiliated State Association to comply with the National Sports Governance Act 2025 or the National Sports Governance (National Sports Bodies) Rules 2026.
A Bench of the Court, comprising Justice Tejas Karia and Justice Madhu Jain paved the for elections to be held to the All India Tennis Association when dismissing a Review Petition. It was filed by former players Somdev Devvarman and Purav Raja against a judgement by the Bench on June 18 in a Letter Patent Appeal.
The petitioners’ senior counsel Rahul Mehra sought to argue that the elections to the AITA Executive should be held only after all affiliated State Associations comply with the new Constitution, the Sport Act 2025, the Governance Rules 2026 and the applicable international Charter and Statutes.
AITA senior counsel Avi Singh countered that by arguing that the Governance Rules 2026 does not make it obligatory for State Associations to comply with the Sports Act 2025. If that were required, it would lead to an inordinate delay in the elections to the AITA Executive Committee, he prayed.
The Bench examined Section 15 of the Sports Act 2025 and Rule 18 of the Governance Rules 2026 and held that the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports had directed only the National Sports Federations to bring themselves in conformity with the Sports Act 2025 and the Governance Rules 2026 on or before June 30, 2026.
“The omission of Affiliate Units and Voting Members from the ambit of the said Rule cannot be regarded as inadvertent. This Court cannot, under the guise of interpretation, expand the ambit of a statutory provision by importing into it an obligation which the legislature has consciously chosen not to impose,” the Bench held.
Justice Tejas Karia and Justice Madhu Jain also held that there is no directive of the Supreme Court that mandates State Associations have to first comply with the Sports Act 2025 and Governance Rules 2026 and the National Sports Federations have to wait till each and every State Association has complied with the Governance Rules.
The Bench agreed with AITA contention that Somdev Devvarman and Purav Raja could not be permitted to file an appeal in disguise, and the Review Petition could not be used to re-argue the matter or substitute one view with another.
“We are of the considered opinion that no error, much less an error apparent on the face of the record, is made out in the Order under review. The present Review Petition cannot be permitted to be converted into a rehearing on merits,” the Bench wrote in its order dated July 18 and uploaded on the Court website on August 1.
This Judgement assumes significance for not only AITA but several other National Sports Federations. For instance, the Ad Hoc Committee appointed to govern the Equestrian Federation of India had set itself the ambitious task of ensuring that all State Associations would comply with the Governance Rules 2026 before conducting elections to its Executive Committee.
At a time when the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has granted provisional affiliation to the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India – curiously it has given some exemptions from certain provisions of the National Sports Development Code of India 2011 – it can draw from the judgement in the Review Petition and direct all Federations to hold elections without waiting for the affiliate units to comply with the Governance Rules 2026.
