In The Wrong Court – Judges cannot decide sports selections. Sports bodies must develop grievance forums

Source: The post is based on an article “In The Wrong Court – Judges cannot decide sports selections. Sports bodies must develop grievance forums” published in The Times of India on 24^th July 2023.

Syllabus: GS 2 – Government Policies and Interventions for Development in various sectors and Issues arising out of their Design and Implementation

Relevance: concerns associated with sports bodies in India

News: Recently, the Delhi High Court has rejected a petition by two professional wrestlers.

They challenged the exemption granted to Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia from Asian Games by Indian Olympic Association’s (IOA) ad hoc committee.

What did the court observe while rejecting the petition?

First, the court found that the IOA’s ad hoc committee’s decision to grant the exemption was not arbitrary or illegal but reasonable.

It was based on genuine concerns about potential injuries to the medal contenders and due to that insufficient time was provided for recovery before the tournament.

Second, the court noted that dismissing the request did not reflect on the talents and achievements of the petitioner-grapplers, who had also succeeded in wrestling.

Must Read: Sports sector in India: Issues and challenges – Explained

What are the problems with sports bodies in India?

Sports bodies in India lacks committees to handle conflicts and address complaints by the sportspeople.

The wrestlers’ protest against the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh highlighted the inadequacy of Prevention of Sexual Harassment Committee (POSH) committees within sports bodies in India.

POSH committees are not present in even half of India’s 30-odd sports bodies.

Due to the absence and ineffectiveness of these committees, sportspersons often choose to move towards courts. However, they hardly know the procedure to file the cases and are unaware of the litigation mechanism.

Therefore, there is a need for sports bodies to develop grievance forums and address the complaint of the sportspeople as court is not a right forum to address their concerns.