Patel, former civil aviation minister, has been penalised for not adhering to the National Sports Code
The Delhi High Court set aside Praful Patel's election as the president of the All India Football Federation on Tuesday. This comes at a time when the chief of country's football body was busy acknowledging the greetings for successfully hosting the first ever FIFA Under-17 World Cup in India.
Patel, former civil aviation minister, has been penalised for not adhering to the National Sports Code (NSC). Patel was elected as the president for a four-year term for the third consecutive term in 2016. The bench of Justice Ravindra Bhat and Justice Najmi Waziri also appointed the former chief election commissioner SY Qureshi as the administrator to monitor the functioning of fresh elections of AIFF.
This has been the second setback for any sports association as Delhi HC bench earlier appointed retired Supreme Court judge as administrator of Delhi & District Cricket Association.
This has been a result of senior advocate Rahul Mehra's relentless efforts to ensure that all the sports federations should be made accountable. Qureshi will run the AIFF until the next election to be conducted within five months.
Mehra had challenged Patel's election immediately after AIFF elected him unanimously for third term till 2020 in its Annual General Meeting held in December last year.
Patel became AIFF acting president in 2008 after then chief Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi suffered a cardiac arrest. Patel later became president in October 2009 before earning a second stint in December 2012.
Patel had recently announced that India has formally bid for the U-20 World Cup in 2019.
This HC judgement also means that federations like athletics and badminton could well be next in the line as Sports ministry website clearly show them as defaulters under the NSC. Athletics Federation of India elections were held on April 2016 and the ministry website till date shows "Report under Examination" against the status of this high profile sport.
Similarly, Badminton Association of India (BAI) does not have mention of names of its president and secretary in the respective columns. After the death of BAI president Akhilesh Das Gupta, the federation is being run by interim president Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Going by how the Supreme Court has ruled in BCCI's case that no person can be office bearer of two different sports federations, Sarma's tenure is also questionable keeping in mind that he is also Assam Cricket Association's president.
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