Jurists appeal for special sports law

Jul 25, 2010 - Age Correspondent |

New Delhi

In the wake of Indian sports facing one controversy after the other and politicians clinging to the top positions of various sports bodies for decades, noted jurists led by former Chief Justice of India J.S. Verma on Saturday felt an urgent need for enacting special laws to regulate sports in India.

The jurists at a conference took note of controversies like the IPL mess, allegations of sexual harassment against women’s hockey coach M.K. Kaushik, an open war between sports minister M.S. Gill and the heads of various federations.
The two-day conference, inaugurated by Justice Verma was organised by the Society of Indian Law Firms (ILF) to deliberate upon “sports and the law” and various other issues related to the upcoming Common Wealth Games as well as the relations of Indian sports bodies with the International Olympic Association.
ILF president Lalit Bhasin said, “The discussion on the recent IPL controversy and sports and intellectual property rights in the Indian context are among the major issues needing special focus.”
“The other issues to be deliberated by the conference on Sunday include, impact of professional sports leagues on the future sports laws, business and the law of sports, broadcasting rights, advertising, marketing and legalities involved in staging the major sports events in the country,” Mr Bhasin said.
Besides, Justice Verma, noted lawyers Fali S. Nariman, K.N. Bhatt, Rajiv Dutta and some sports writers also expressed their views. These jurists were unanimous in their views that a lot of legal issues related to the sports had not yet been taken care of by the government and the existing rules and regulations regulating the sports bodies “are not clear and transparent”.
“India is yet to accomplish adequate sports laws as there has to be a mechanism in place even if it is self regulatory,” ILF chief Bhasin said.

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