Former Sports Minister Ajay Maken on Friday welcomed the Delhi High Court decision to uphold the legal validity of the Sports Code which was passed by the government during his tenure, saying that his stand on the initiative has been vindicated.
The National Sports Development Code of India was passed by the government in 2011 under the initiative of Maken and primarily seeks to put restrictions on the age and tenure of office bearers, besides envisaging free and fair elections and transparent functioning of National Sports Federations (NSF).
"My stand on the Sports Code has been vindicated with the High Court supporting the Code which was envisaged in February 2011. This Code will ensure that the NSFs follow the age and tenure norms and also conduct the election in a free, fair and transparent manner through secret ballot as provided for in the National Sports Code," said Maken who served as Sports Minister in 2011-12.
Under the Sports Code, the age limit of all the office bearers will have to be 70 years.
The tenure regulations will, however, be applied to three office bearers only - the president, secretary general/secretary and treasurer.
The president of any NSF may hold office for a maximum period of twelve years (three terms of four years) with or without break and secretary general/secretary and the treasurer may serve a maximum of two successive terms of four years each after which a minimum cooling off period of four years will apply to seek fresh election.
NSFs availing government grants will be declared as public authorities and brought under purview of the Right to Information Act, 2005.
Notification and implementation of NADA Anti-Doping Rules; Guidelines for holding fair and transparent elections to NSFs will be applied under the Sports Code.
Recently, the Sports Ministry had asked all NSFs to amend their constitutions in line with the Sports Code by December 31, 2013 or else face derecognition.
Almost all the NSFs have accepted the age and tenure guidelines provided in the Sports Code. The Ministry had recently derecognised Indian Amateur Boxing Federation for possible manipulation in its elections while Archery Association of India also met the same fate for flouting age limit guideline.
Reacting to the development, Indian Olympic Association senior vice-president Virendra Nanavati said that the IOA has already incorporated the tenure guidelines of the Sports Code.
Regarding the age limit, he said the IOA follows International Olympic guidelines.
But the latest IOC factsheet says that "the age limit fixed is 70 years old, except for members co-opted between 1966 and 1999, for whom the age limit is 80".
"We have to see the details of the High Court ruling and discuss among our office bearers what are the implications on the IOA," Nanavati told PTI.
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