HC directs ministry to revoke IOA chief’s Khel Protsahan Puraskar
N Ramachandran, the IOA chief, was given the award in 2001.
Taking a serious view of the “total disregard” of the sports ministry towards the opinions of sports players in giving awards, the Delhi High Court on Monday directed the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS) to revoke the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar awarded to IOA chief and World Squash Federation president N Ramachandran in 2011.
The bench has also pulled up the government for changing the composition of the selection committee for the awards and excluding players from the committee.
The bench has said that the “tall claims” made by Ramachandran in his application, including his declaration that he has spend Rs 7.5 crore to establish the Squash and Triathlon Academy in Tamil Nadu, had been “blindly” accepted by the committee.
Ramachandran in his application had claimed that he had spent over Rs 7.5 crore to establish the academy and “organised and sourced” funding through his group companies for the “development of squash”.
The court, however, found that there were no documentary records in any financial documents of his personal contribution or from his companies. The court also found that the academy itself was “substantially funded” by the sports ministry.
“No document pertaining to the specifics with respect to the contributions received from the fifth Respondent, either monetary support or endorsements channelized by him through companies or any supportive material in this regard was placed on the record,” the court has held.
“The entire application nominating the fifth Respondent, and the manner it was pursued paints a curious sight. If indeed, it was the SFRI’s contribution which was to be considered, nothing prevented the organization from seeking the nomination,” said the court
The court has now directed the ministry, Sports Authority of India and the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu, which had nominated Ramachandran, to revoke the award.
“In these conspectus of circumstances and the state of the official record, the court is constrained to conclude that the tall or fanciful claims were given uncritical credulity by the selection committee, which proceeded to accept the application and recommend the fifth respondent for the Puraskar,” held the bench in its order.
Ramachandran, who is the current president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), is the brother of incumbent ICC chairman and former BCCI president N Srinivasan. He was given the RKPP award in 2011 during his term as the ‘patron’ of the Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI) for “creating an academy” for the training of sportspersons in squash.
A PIL was filed in 2013 by a group of former squash players challenging the award as well as the changes in the selection committee. the petitioners had claimed that Ramachandran had given “false” accounts of financial contribution to the sport.
The bench of Justice S Ravindra Bhat and Justice RK Gauba in its judgment released on Monday directed the ministry to include eminent sportspersons in the selection committee for the awards, and has held that the “exclusion of eminent sportspersons from the selection committee of the Puraskar was without any basis.”
The composition of the selection committee was changed in 2011, giving the entire power to bureaucrats and administrators. “The total disregard to the voices of squash players – past or present, and the squash coaches – past or present – in the opinion of this Court, was an insult to the sport,” the bench has said.
The bench also noted that no justification had been given by the ministry for changing the composition of the selection committee for the awards.
“No justification, howsoever cursory, is provided for the need to set up separate selection committees for Dhyan Chand and RKPP or for the particular composition of the proposed committees that is so markedly different from status quo ante,” said the bench.
Further, the court has also agreed with the allegations made by the petitioners, that Ramachandran could not have qualified for the RKPP award as he did not fulfil the requirement for contribution to the sport.
