From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday annexed powers from All India Football Federation president Praful Patel, a former union minister and senior NCP leader, and set up a 3-member committee of administrators (COA), headed by former Supreme Court judge A R Dave to manage the federation’s affairs and conduct the long-pending elections.
Last month, the Union Sports Ministry, informed the Supreme Court that Patel’s tenure was in violation of the Sports Code. The Court has tasked the committee to adopt AIFF’s constitution in line with the National Sports Code and model guidelines.
A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and PS Narasimha said the COA will comprise two earlier members–Dr SY Qureshi, former Chief Election Commissioner and Bhaskar Ganguly, former captain of the Indian Football Team besides Justice (retd) Dave.
The top court said the current state of affairs is not in the interest of proper governance of the federation. It directed the CoA to forthwith take charge of the AIFF and assist the court by providing inputs to the court in facilitating the adoption of its constitution.
The bench said the COA will prepare electoral rolls for the purpose of conducting elections to the executive committee of AIFF as per the constitution to be submitted by the two-member committee (ombudsman) of Qureshi and Ganguly.
“The committee of administrators shall carry out day-to-day governance of the All India Football Federation”, the bench said, adding the COA will be at a liberty to take the assistance of the erstwhile committee of the federation in holding of tournaments and selection of players and other affairs.
The bench said the newly constituted committee of administrators shall sit in Football House, the headquartrs of AIFF at Dwarka in New Delhi or any other place of convenience.
The top court clarified that this is pro-tem arrangement in order to facilitate the holding of elections and handing over the affairs to the democratically elected body in accordance with its constitution.
It added that it is anticipated the elections are held at the expeditious date.
On May 12, the top court had agreed to hear a plea of the Delhi Football Club alleging the illegal continuation of a managing committee and Praful Patel as president of AIFF for over a decade. Delhi Football Club president Shaji Prabhakaran had also written to Praful Patel to hold the elections.
Last week, Prabhakaran suggested AIFF boss Praful Patel, also a FIFA council member, to hand over the national body’s daily functioning to a FIFA-led normalisation committee until a new committee is elected.
also a FIFA council member, to hand over the national body’s daily functioning to a FIFA-led normalisation committee until a new committee is elected.
Claiming that its Rs 3 crore legal bill isn’t ‘justified’ for an organisation whose annual government grant for 2022-23 has been reduced to only Rs 5 crore, Prabhakaran said the money should instead be used to organise youth championships, leagues, exposure trips and camps for junior national teams. He wrote to Praful Patel that the current set of legal team has not brought any progress to the case in the last three years.
Having completed his maximum term of 12 years as a national federation president, as permitted under the sports code, in December 2020, Patel is ineligible to contest the elections. But a month before it was supposed to be held, the AIFF filed a petition to Supreme Court seeking clarification of the status of its constitution.
The AIFF has long maintained to its state associations that it “is not in a position to conduct the ensuing election…” due to “non-finalisation of its constitution”. In over 16 months, the case has not been heard by the Supreme Court even once, allowing the Patel-led committee to continue in their position.
