The Delhi High Court-appointed Observer SY Quraishi, palpably upset with the Equestrian Federation of India, has recommended that the Court appoint an Administrator to oversee the reformation process so that the EFI complies with the National Sports Development Code of India 2011, beginning with amending its constitution and the electoral procedure.
Dr. Quraishi’s scathing report concludes by praying the Court to consider a systematic reformation process of EFI, including amending the Statutes to being it in compliance with the Sports Code, to then hold elections in line with the model election guidelines of the Code – and to affect these under a Court-appointed Administrator.
In his wide-ranging report to the Court, the Observer pointed out that EFI made conscious and concerted effort to make it difficult for him to gain access to its records. He said that as the Observer, he would have been attending EFI Executive Committee meetings, but the Federation circumvented that by not holding an Executive Committee meeting since February 2020.
Worse, the Observer has requested the Court to consider that he had withdrawn the no objection he had granted to the nomination of Quarter-Master General Lt. Gen. SS Mishra and Director-General of Supplies and Transport Lt. Gen. MKS Yadav as EFI President and Vice-President (Administration) as he had been misled to believing that Quartermaster General and DGST had to be nominated to the said posts as no other person was qualified to hold the said posts.
The EFI counsel has sought time to file a response to the Observer’s report, presented to the Court on February 9. EFI should have seen it coming, especially after it chose to overlook Dr. Quraishi’s directive to stop violating its own technical rules in the conduct of the sport. He had advised EFI to rectify a gross error in upgrading a horse, but the Federation turned a deaf ear to that.
Curiously, the EFI counsel hid behind an urge to respond to the scathing observations made in the Observer’s 84-page report, including five annexures, rather than tell the Court what specific instructions he had got from his client in response to the Rajasthan Equestrian Association’s plea that EFI be directed to amend its statutes in line with the Code and then hold elections.
On December 17 last, EFI counsel requested the Court to give him time to seek specific instructions from his client to reply to a Rajasthan Equestrian Association prayer. The Rajasthan Equestrian Association prayer was in the wake of Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sport decision to renew recognition of EFI . The Court acceded EFI’s request and posted the case for February 10.
Rajasthan Equestrian Association appealed to the High Court to order EFI to amend its constitution in line with the Sports Code before holding elections. On November 26, the Ministry had renewed the recognition of EFI, granting it a year’s time to bring its constitution and governance structure in line with the National Sports Development Code of India 2011.
On Tuesday, when Rajasthan Equestrian Association counsel Rajiv Dutta wanted to know the instructions EFI counsel got from his client, the latter told the Court he would like to seek time to reply to the Observer’s report filed a day earlier. He said that a number of allegations had been made against EFI and sought two weeks’ time to file a response to that report.
Even more interestingly, in an additional affidavit filed on February 8, EFI mentioned the renewal of recognition granted by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and declared that it would amend its constitution on the basis of the Ministry’s response to its representation seeking relaxation of some terms in the Code.
And, while it dutifully attached copies of the Ministry’s letter of November 26, 2020 granting EFI renewal of recognition for a year during which it was required to bring its constitution and governance structure in line with the Sports Code and Ministry’s notification on adding a relaxation clause to the Code, it chose not to add a copy of its representation to the Ministry.
The Delhi High Court has listed the case for March 3 for further orders.
We are hopeful that finally justice shall prevail.