Indian Army has asked the beleaguered Equestrian Federation of India (EFI) to move its office from the premises of Army’s 61 Cavalry B Squadron in Delhi Cantonment, holding that the civilian body had been making unauthorised occupation of defence land since December 2012. This comes as a huge setback to EFI, already facing fire on a number of fronts.
From November last year, Army has engaged in communication over EFI’s occupancy of the defence land, things came to a head when Chandigarh resident Krishan Kumar filed a RTI application on June 23 this year. EFI wrote to the Army on July 26. And after a couple of exchanges in August, Army sent a vacation notice to EFI on September 7, as per EFI sources.
In response to Mr. Krishan Kumar’s queries, Army’s Public Information Officer wrote that EFI had neither deposited any rent nor paid any charges for electricity or water during the term of its occupancy. Unless the EFI is able to convince the Army to let it continue occupying the premises in A-1 Defence land, it will have to find new office space.
There have been several issues plaguing EFI from the time its then President first announced a team for the 2018 Asian Games and then scrapped it only to pick a squad that eventually represented the country in the continental competition in Jakarta. Things came to such a pass that the Delhi High Court-appointed Observer recommended EFI by run by an Administrator.
The most recent and needless drama featured a set of Indians turning out for Nepal in a qualifying event for the Tent-Pegging World Cup held in Greater Noida in March this year. When news broke of such blatant impersonation under the nose of EFI officials, EFI scrambled to form a committee to investigate the case.
The committee does not appear to have presented its report despite being granted time till August 15 after it was expected to submit its report by April 21 in the first place. The delay was on account of the EFI Secretariat not being able to share documents because of the lockdown imposed by Delhi Government during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
And as if that were not enough, EFI may have to return any monies it may have been granted by the Sports Authority of India for the conduct of the World Cup qualifier since the mandated 10 international teams and 100 athletes did not compete in the Greater Noida event. EFI has been caught in a web of its own making.
Not the least of EFI’s problems is a case in the Delhi High Court since September 2019. Hearing a writ petition by the Rajasthan Equestrian Association, the Court landed a telling blow in July 2020 by restraining Lt. Gen. SS Mishra and Lt. Gen. MKS Yadav respectively from acting as interim President and Vice-President (Administration) of the EFI.
The Court will hear the case on Tuesday, having asked the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports to present its view on why fresh elections to the EFI Executive Council should not be held. The Rajasthan Equestrian Association has been insisting that any elections in EFI should be held in consonance with the National Sports Development Code of India, 2011.
At the core of the legal battle is the Rajasthan Equestrian Association prayer that EFI do away with registering individuals and army units as voting members but to let only Equestrian Associations of each State and Union Territory form the EFI electoral college. EFI officials content that they run a ‘peculiar sport’ that is club-based.
The EFI under the control of the Army Generals and certain officers does not want to follow the Sports code. They want to continue with their individual life members and factitious clubs to get the votes to control the Federation. Totally illegal.