High court directs Archery association to follow national sports code in election

New Delhi - The Archery Association of India was Monday directed by the Delhi High Court to follow the national sports code and send the nomination papers for various posts in its upcoming Oct 28 election to the returning officer and “not to the president of the body”.

A division bench of Chief Justice D Murugesan and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said: “Nomination papers need to be personally delivered by the candidates to the returning officer but not to the association’s president.”

The court would pass the detailed order later.

The court was hearing a plea alleging that the association did not follow the National Sports Development Code despite an earlier court order. The plea was filed by advocate Rahul Mehra, who sought fresh elections of the office bearers of the Archery Association of India (AAI) and compliance with the National Sports Development Code of India, 2011.

The AAI Sep 22 issued a fresh notification for elections of its members and scheduled Oct 28 as the date of elections. The association, as per its first notification, was to hold the election Sep 29 but later deferred it to Oct 28.

Earlier the court had directed AAI to follow the government’s National Sports Development Code for its elections.

Mehra, arguing his case, alleged that instead of the nomination papers being sent to returning officer Justice J.D. Kapoor, a retired high court judge, they were sent to AAI President V.K. Malhotra which is against the sports code.

The court had ordered the Sports Ministry to issue instructions to AAI to enforce the sports code while holding the election which rendered the association’s incumbent 80-year-old president Malhotra ineligible to run the poll.

He further sought the court’s direction to the central government to de-recognise the sports body if it failed to conduct the poll as per the sports guidelines.