Ministry ready for fight to the finish

Sabi Hussain

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 3

India's renowned athletes and coaches who have gone to court against the Sports Ministry's decisions need to brace up for a long legal battle. The Ministry has decided to fight out all the pending and fresh legal cases, filed against it by athletes and coaches, till the Supreme Court. The Ministry's decision is the result of athletes and coaches taking the legal route quite frequently to get awards and other decisions in their favour.

This year alone, as many as five sportspersons filed court cases against the recommendations of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and Arjuna Awards selection committee. This despite the fact that the committee was headed by a retired justice of the Kerala High Court. The Ministry considered the trend “dangerous” and decided to engage high-profile legal luminaries to argue the merits of its policies and decisions in a more convincing manner in the apex court.

“The Ministry would not restrict itself to fighting cases pertaining to Khel Ratna or Arjuna Award recommendations. It will also approach the Supreme Court for matters related to discrimination or favouritism in selection trials and stopping a player or a team from participating in the Asian Games and the CWG on genuine grounds,” a senior Ministry official told The Tribune.

“We want to discourage this trend. This has become a kind of a trend now. What happened in this year's awards selection is there for everyone to see. There have been five cases against us. We will be fighting every case in the apex court. Some athletes and coaches are taking advantage of the Ministry's lenient approach,” the official added.

Till now, the Ministry wasn't challenging any of the lower or High Court decisions against it in the apex court. “But this will change from now onwards. Let the apex court decide in our favour or against us. We will try to justify our decisions before the bench. Just like we got relief from the High Court after challenging the decision of single-judge bench in the case of wrestling coach Vinod Kumar, the Ministry will similarly fight every case till the apex court,” the official said.

Lawyer and activist Rahul Rahul said the Ministry was trying to buy peace with some of the sportsmen out of court because it knew it was at fault, not the athletes. “The Ministry is trying to intimidate the country's sporting icons by sending out a message that it is ready to fight against the rights of deserving sportspersons who have been asking for nothing but transparency while giving away awards,” Mehra said.

A senior coach, who did not wish to be quoted, said the history of sports awards was replete with grievances and disputes. “With so much of lobbying and politicking involved in the process, many a time some genuinely deserving candidates get sidelined forever.”

Controversies and fights for the awards

n 2009: MC Mary Kom openly criticised the Ministry over Khel Ratna snub before being jointly conferred with the honour along with Vijender Singh and Sushil Kumar.

n 2011: Shooter Gagan Narang got the Khel Ratna after expressing his displeasure on being ignored for the award in 2010. He had even threatened to skip the 2010 Delhi CWG after the snub.

n 2011: Shooter Vijay Kumar and wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt, both Olympics medallists, were selected for the Khel Ratna within 15 days of winning medals in London as against the government's policy of having one awardee for a particular year.

n 2013: Discus thrower Krishna Poonia, who had finished sixth in the 2012 London Olympics, was livid after shooter Ronjon Sodhi was selected for the Khel Ratna. She fought a bitter battle with the government, accusing it of “double standard”.

n 2014: Commonwealth Games gold medallist boxer Manoj Kumar took the legal route and filed a case in the Delhi High Court after being snubbed for the Arjuna Award for the second time. The Ministry later admitted it was a mistake to deny him the honour as it mistook him for another dope-tainted athlete by the same name.