New Delhi, Nov. 2: The chiefs of National Sports Federations (NSFs) received a jolt on Tuesday with the Delhi High Court upholding the sports ministry’s guidelines restricting their tenure of office and fixing the upper age limit.
The court ruling makes it clear that all national sports bodies will have to follow a fixed tenure of maximum 12 years or three terms and an upper age limit of 70 years for their office-bearers.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Deepak Misra directed the union government to go ahead and fix the tenure and age limits and turned down a plea by five federations for staying the government policy.
The ruling will impact a number of politicians and top bureaucrats, who continue to remain at the helm of NSF for years.
The list includes V.K. Malhotra (president, Archery Association of India), Jagdish Tytler (president, Judo Federation of India), Yashwant Sinha (president, All India Tennis Association), Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa (Cycling Federation of India), Abhay Singh Chautala (Indian Amateur Boxing Federation), Digvijay Singh (president, National Rifle Association of India), Ashoke Ghosh (president, Kho Kho Federation of India), and K.P. Singh Deo (Rowing Federation of India.
In fact, Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi has been the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president since 1996, while BJP leader Malhotra has been president of the Archery Association of India for more than three decades. Dhindsa’s reign at the Cycling Federation of India is into its 14th year while Verma, is president of Badminton Association for the past 12 years.