Sports
SC notice to government on IOA plea opposing National Sports Code
New Delhi, Feb 13
The Supreme Court Friday
issued notice to the central government on a plea by the Indian Olympic
Association (IOA) challenging the enforcement of the National Sports
Code (NSC) which prescribes the age and tenure of its office bearers as
well as of the other national sports federations.
A bench of
Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice C. Nagappan issued notice on the plea
of IOA challenging the May 9, 2014 verdict of Delhi High Court upholding
the code limiting the tenure of the office bears of the IOA and sports
federations.
Appearing for the IOA, senior counsel Gopal
Subramanium contested the validity of the NSC saying that the central
government had no power to frame law on the matters relating to sports
as it came under the state list of subjects in the constitution of
India.
Subramanium told the court that IOA has incorporated in
its rules some of the provisions of the NSC that prevented the people
continuing as office bearers of the NSF in "perpetuity" but other
provisions of the code could not be enforced on the national sports body
as it affected their autonomy.
Making an offer, he told the
court to ask the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to appoint a
committee of three eminent international sportspersons who have excelled
in Olympics to looking into the working of IOA and other NSF and
suggest measure for improving their functioning.
Subramanium said
that the sports bodies too were seeking excellence in sports and were
not oblivious of the prevailing state of sports excellence in the
country.
The Delhi High Court while holding that NSC was neither
arbitrary nor violated any freedom guaranteed under the constitution,
had said: "The central government can insist upon adherence to these
provisions (sports code), without the aid of legislation."
It had
held that "the tenure restrictions impugned in this case can and are
insisted upon as part of the public interest in efficient and fair
administration of such NSFs".
The National Sports Development
Code 2011 restricted the tenure of the president, secretary, treasurer
and other office bearers to 12 years and eight years and fixed 70 years
as an upper limit for a person to be an office bearer.
Subramanium
drew the attention of the court to that part of judgment which said,
"Sport administration, the way it is run in India, through coterie,
cabals, manipulations and intrigues, seems to discourage a vast majority
of the population to devote itself to athletics, shooting, judo, table
tennis, gymnastics, soccer, boking, fencing and the like".
The court declined to interfere with this, saying that it was not directed that the petitioner IOA.
"It
is not open to you," the court observed as Subramanium told the court
that "judicial restraint is more powerful than judicial eloquence".