The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS) has been sending confusing signals to sports fraternity by shifting its stance in the Delhi High Court as far as its power to grant them annual recognition is concerned. On July 28, it filed an application that is similar in tone and tenor to the one it had filed on May 18 when it invoked the Constitution to speak of the powers of the Executive.
This has left the National Sports Federations (NSF) in an unenviable position.
For the first time since 2010 when the Ministry introduced a system of annual recognition to NSFs, not one of them has that standing. And, by moving an application on July 28 before the two-member bench rather than approach the Supreme Court, the Ministry may only be ensuring that NSFs stay unrecognised for a while longer.
Having first decided not to challenge the order of February 7 that directed it (and the Indian Olympic Association) to inform the Court in advance while making a decision on NSFs, it dragged its feet till May 3. It submitted an application informing that court that it had decided to grant recognition to 54 NSFs.
On June 24, in what was surprising U-turn, the Central Government Standing Counsel quickly offered to withdraw two applications filed on May 3 and June 16 informing the Delhi High Court that the Ministry wanted to grant provisional recognition to 54 National Sports Federations (NSF) and three NSFs respectively.
It is baffling that a counsel who helped draft and file a counter affidavit on May 18 should hastily withdraw the May 3 application when the Court observed that the Ministry had tried to over-reach its February 7 order.
It would have been appropriate for the Counsel to stand his ground and say that the Court had been informed in advance. In the case of the 54 NSFs, the Ministry sent out letters announcing that provisional recognition had been granted till September 30 only a month after filing an application in the Court.
The Ministry’s counsel would have been well within his right to draw the Court’s attention to an application that he filed on May 18 “The Government has the power to suspend/withdraw recognition keeping in view of severe violations of the NSDCI,” the application said, making a strong case for the Ministry’s right to deal with NSFs the way it believed was right.
“The Court order dated February 7, 2020, takes away the entire authority of the Government to deal with NSFs. The judicial scrutiny of each and every action relating to NSFs seems to be in contravention of the Constitutional scheme of division of powers between the Executive and the Judiciary,” it said.
“It is submitted that policy making and is implementation is a core responsibility as well prerogative of the Executive and it should not be hampered from doing so unless found to be irrational or inequitable. As per the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rile 1961, matters relating to IOA and NSFs are solely to be dealt by the Department of Sports,” it said.
In fact, the application went on to suggest that the petitioner has been moving the Court from time to time since 2010, requesting it to issue directions to Government in the areas exclusively reserved by the supra lex tothe Government which are restricting the executive powers of the Government such as appointment of members of committees, submissions of reports of such committees or taking action on the recommendation of these committees.
It suggested that the Ministry would take a strong stand in arguing to retain its undiluted power to grant or withdraw recognition to National Sports Federations. The May 18 application had prayed for the Court to modify its February 7 order to delete the reference to the Ministry, specifying that it would have to inform the court in advance when making a decision.
Against such a background, the decision of the counsel to withdraw the application filed on May 3 and take no further steps on the ‘proposal’ mooted on June 16, was nothing but a shocking U-turn. It was clear that the counsel had willy-nilly place the arguments and prayer made in the May 18 in cold storage.
Now, the Ministry’s urgent application on July 28 urging the Court to revise its February 7 order to exclude it from having to keep the Court informed in advance when making decisions in NSFs has to be seen as yet another U-turn. Curiously, it has taken the Ministry nearly six weeks to go back to its original stand
In these six weeks, NSFs have gone from being ‘provisionally recognised’ to not being recognised by the Ministry. Surely, some of their work would have been impacted by the shift. Of course, the smarter NSFs will have kept the backroom conversations going with the Sports Authority of India, but the athletes and coaches are being confused no end by having to deal with multiple officials.
Take the case of the now-on-now-off national camp for the elite shooters at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Ranges in Delhi. The coaches are waiting for formal communication, leaving the shooters to their own device. There can be no clearer example of athletes getting affected by the NRAI losing its status as an NSF recognised by the Ministry.
You would expect IOA and NSFs to join the court battle. Yet, the IOA lawyer suggested through a Tweet that NSFs would have to fend for themselves if they wanted relief. NSFs have preferred a wait-and-watch policy, letting the Ministry lead the arguments. They are relieved that the Ministry has reversed its approach one more time, but they are losing ground – and time.
Meanwhile, the New Indian Express has reported that the petitioner, Rahul Mehra, has filed a counter affidavit asking the court to direct the Ministry not to recognise any NSF since each of them is violating some part or the other of the National Sports Code 2011. It seems an expected outcome of his research, no NSF slipping through his sieve.
Once the long-drawn case is decided, it would be interesting if there is a full-fledged public debate and a firming up of the non-negotiables in the National Sports Code – age and tenure restrictions, cooling off period and composition of electoral college as well as athlete representation in executive committee and an independent audit of accounts.
In fact, if India can give a National Sports Tribunal the legal standing to look into the functioning of these public bodies, the road ahead may be bright. India needs to redefine its sporting priorities and ensure that all stakeholders have a clear role to play in broad-basing sport, encouraging more to stay on in competitive sport and help elite athletes fly India’s flag high on the international stage.
Very well explained.