High court notice to Punjab after 2 players say they were not issued sports gradation certificate

Saurabh Malik

Chandigarh, June 3

Away from media glare, Banita Joshi and some other sportswomen in Punjab, too, have a grievance.

A national-level netball player representing Punjab, Joshi won a silver medal in the 36th National Games organised by the Indian Olympic Association in September-October 2022. But she and another player have moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court, claiming that they have been wrongly denied the sports gradation certificate despite outstanding achievements in sports.

Taking up the petitions filed by Joshi and Aksh Sharma, Justice Vinod S Bhardwaj has put the state of Punjab and another respondent on notice after recording their counsel’s contention that the “issue in question” was covered by the high court judgment dated February 15 in the case of ‘Piyusha Modi versus the state of Punjab and others”. Justice Bhardwaj also fixed the case for further hearing on August 31.

Their counsel Ritesh Aggarwal, among other things, contended that the high court in the judgment categorically held that denial of sports gradation certificate to a sportsperson in any discipline could not be the object of the “sports gradation policy”, which intended to recognise a sportsperson’s contribution.  

Going into the background of the matter in Joshi’s petition, the counsel submitted that the petitioner approached the respondent authorities for the issuance of the gradation certificate after the national games. But the respondent authorities refused to even accept the application.   

The counsel said the certificate was illegally denied on the grounds that the “Netball Promotion Association (regd)”, under whose banner the petitioner played, was not recognised by the Punjab Olympic Association.

He added that the denial was on completely frivolous grounds based on a circular dated December 24, 1997, issued by the Punjab Director Sports as per which the certificate issued by a sports association would be considered for gradation only if it was recognised by the Punjab Olympic Association    

The counsel added that the petitioner could not be denied the benefit under the sports gradation policy, even if for the sake of argument it was admitted that the Netball Promotion Association (regd) was not recognised by the Punjab Olympic Association.

“It would lead to a situation wherein none of the netball associations in the state of Punjab have valid recognition and affiliation and eventually sportspersons like the petitioner would be robbed of all the chances of participation in national/international events without any fault on their part and further would be denied the benefit granted by the state of Punjab by way of reservation in the civil service posts,” it was added.