Telangana High Court Allows Candidate To Participate In National Badminton Championship Finals Amid Birth Certificate Controversy

The Telangana High Court has directed the Badminton Association of Telangana (BAT) to allow a candidate to participate as a finalist from the State in the Yonex-Sunrise 35^th Sub Junior National Badminton Championship 2023, amid a controversy surrounding the validity of her birth certificate. The petitioner was competing in the category of under 15 and 17 years.

Justice C.V. Bhaskar refrained from commenting on the authenticity of the birth certificate while allowing her to participate, subject to the outcome of the petition. 

“Since there is serious dispute with regard to the date of birth certificates produced by the writ petitioner, this Court instead of examining which date of birth certificate is correct, directs the respondent No.2 to allow both the writ petitioner and the implead petitioner to participate in the tournament, subject to outcome of the writ petition.” 

The case concerned the participation of two individuals, the writ petitioner and an implead petitioner, in a badminton tournament. 

The petitioner's participation in the tournament was initially in question due to discrepancies in the date of birth certificates provided by her. A letter issued by the Badminton Association of India (BAI) alleged that the petitioner has two birth certificates/birth records. Accordingly, the secretary of the BAT without any notice removed her name from the list of finalists from the State of Telangana eligible to participate in the Sub-Junior Badminton Nationals.  

Aggrieved by this, she approached the Court praying to declare the actions of the BAT as illegal as it was done without any notice or considering her explanation. The petitioner claimed to be eligible based on her date of birth, which she claimed was January 9, 2008.

The petitioner also produced her school records, passport, SCC Memo, etc. before the court to show that the birth certificate she submitted reflects the same date of birth as shown in these documents.

Upon verification of the said documents, the Court found that they supported the petitioner's claim of eligibility. Accordingly, on September 13, it issued interim orders allowing the petitioner to participate in the tournament, pending further legal proceedings. 

 “this Court, on verification of the SSC Memo and also the passport which correlates with the date of birth certificates issued by the Municipal Corporation has granted interim orders directing the respondent No.2 to permit the petitioner to participate in the tournament to be held from 14.09.2023 to 19.09.2023.”

The matter was thereby posted for counters in October.

However, on 14^th September, an application was filed by Praanjala Nisarga, seeking to be impleaded in the present petition and that the stay granted by the Court be vacated. 

The implead petitioner contended that her name was removed to accommodate the writ petitioner’s name in the list of finalists to represent Telangana, thereby disqualifying her from participating. She also added that the writ petitioner possessed two conflicting date of birth certificates, suggesting that she had manipulated these certificates to participate in the tournament.

Senior Counsel L.Ravichander appearing for the implead petitioner vehemently contended that both birth certificates produced by the writ petitioner were not genuine, as confirmed by the letter issued by the Medical Superintendent, Government General Hospital. The said letter stated that the writ petitioner's and her mother's names were not found in the hospital records, and thus none of the birth certificates could be considered genuine.

Considering the seriousness of the allegations and to avoid determining the accuracy of the date of birth certificates at this stage, the court issued an order directing BAT to allow both candidates and posted the matter on 11^th October. 

However, it was clarified that this permission was subject to the outcome of the writ petition.

Case Title: Neredimelli Deepshika vs. State of Telangana

Counsel for writ petitioner: K.R.Sasidharan Nair

Counsel for implead petitioner: L.Ravichander, Senior Counsel appearing for IvI/s Mayur Mundra, Advocate

Counsel for respondents: GP for sports.

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