Will Ministry take up Equestrian Federation of India’s application for Code-exemption once again?

The Equestrian Federation of India officials seem more eager to push their luck and retain status quo rather than fall in line with the National Sports Development Code of India. They have now been left to place their trust in their benefactors in Shastri Bhavan, which houses the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, and hope they will bail EFI out of the tricky corner that it finds itself in.

On Thursday, the Delhi High Court ignored the EFI plea to modify its order of July 20, restraining the interim President and interim Vice President (Administration) from carrying out their functions. It should not surprise anyone if the EFI officials in charge see this as a relief to continue in their positions till at least the next hearing on December 14.

For, in asking the Ministry to consider EFI’s application for exemption from complying with the National Sports Development Code of India 2011 and to and place its decision before the Court before December 14, the Court has appeared to throw EFI a lifeline.

Curiously, the Ministry had already dealt with the EFI request and had given it time till March 31, 2020 to present a roadmap for Code compliance. On December 3 last, instead of imposing action as had been indicated in its notices, the Ministry toed the EFI line that equestrian is a peculiar sport and granted it recognition and time till March 31, 2020 to present a roadmap for Code compliance.

The moot question now is: Can the Ministry take up the application for consideration yet again? Having written in December 2019 and set EFI a four-month deadline, it may not be appropriate for the Ministry to take up the same set of letters and come up with a different solution now to what has already been put down in black and white.

Then again, strange things have happened in the portals of the Ministry when it comes to making decisions on EFI. The Ministry did not spend longer than six weeks before derecognising the Rowing Federation of  India in January this year for flouting the Sports Code, but it has let EFI play hide and seek with the Code-compliance from 2013.

Last year, the EFI claimed before the Court that that its representation seeking exemption from the Sports Code would be taken up the Ministry at a meeting with all National Sports Federations on October 10, 2019. The fact is that the agenda for the meeting was a discussion on the Draft National Sports Code 2017 and not the EFI’s request.

It is amazing that EFI has been hoping that it would find relief in the Draft National Sports Code 2017 when that document is approved by the Ministry. No less a person than the Minister himself has gone on record as saying that the 2017 document, as it was presented, has not found acceptance and would not be implemented.

Moreover, Code-compliance issues cannot be judged prospectively. Few will have any doubt that the EFI has been in breach of the National Sports Code 2011, which has secured the Court’s approval as being good in the eyes of the law. It is inevitable that the EFI’s lunge from year to year as far as Ministry’s recognition is concerned will have to be scrutinised under the existing rules.

In any case, after the Ministry allowed EFI time till March 31, 2020 to furnish a roadmap for its transition to be compliant with the National Sports Code 2011, there has been no forward movement on that front. Morally, EFI is in position cannot claim any further immunity on account of its representation made in June and July 2019.

In fact, in January and June 2017, Ministry wrote to EFI, advising it to carry out amendments to its constitution to become fully compliant with the National Sports Code. And, in 2017, EFI wrote to the Ministry saying that a roadmap is being prepared for full compliance within four years. It is said to have presented a “compliance roadmap” to Ministry later that year.

Truth is, EFI never intended to act on that roadmap and continued to defy the Code with impunity. In February 2019, the Ministry set EFI August 3 that year as a deadline for Code-compliance. Like all earlier deadlines, this too passed without an automatic suspension of the Ministry’s recognition of EFI.

The Court has asked the Ministry to consider EFI’s application and place its decision before the Court before December 14, 2020. Curiously, it is a fact that the Ministry had already considered the EFI application for exemption and had given it time till March 31, 2020 to present a roadmap for Code compliance.

Indeed, it was on December 3 last year when, instead of imposing action as had been indicated in its letters, the Ministry accepted EFI’s contention that equestrian is a peculiar sport and  granted it recognition and time till March 31, 2020 to present a roadmap for Code compliance. The moot question is: Can the Ministry take up the same application for consideration yet again?

Therefore, ideally speaking, it should not surprise anyone if the Ministry’s response to the Court directive of September 24 is be simple: EFI has been in blatant breach of the National Sports Code; EFI has misled the Ministry saying that its elections in 2013, 2015 and 2017 were held in consonance with guidelines that are a part of the National Sports Code.

Then again, inexplicable things have happened in the Ministry’s corridors when it comes to EFI.

On another front, it is rather strange that instead of advising EFI to fall in line with the National Sports Code, the Delhi High Court-appointed Observer, Dr. SY Quraishi has written to the EFI Secretary-General as late as on September 21, suggesting that EFI seek the Court’s permission to hold elections.

The High Court-appointed observer, who draws an honorarium that he would have indicated himself to EFI, should have realised the gravity of the situation within days of the High Court restraining the EFI President and EFI Vice President (administration) from functioning. Yet, he wrote to EFI on September 21 that the Court’s order of July 2020 had come to his notice.