Asian Games: Calcutta High Court Permits Unselected Volleyball Player To View Trials Footage For Self Assessment

The Calcutta High Court has refused to pass orders in favour of a volleyball player who challenged her non-selection by the Volleyball Federation of India (“VFI”) for the 2023 Asian Games contingent.

Petitioner claimed that she was highly accomplished in the sport of Volleyball at the national level, and that those had achieved far less than her in the sport, had been selected due to a non-transparent selection process.

In dismissing the plea, a single-bench of Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharya held:

The court is not an expert in the field of Volleyball or, for that matter, in any sport. Hence, some amount of finality has to be attributed to the outcome of the selection process, which is supposed to be held by people having sufficient acumen of the concerned sport. However, the petitioner has a point in arguing that since the petitioner is one of the premier sports persons of the country in the field of Volleyball, she is at least entitled to know her deficiencies, as perceived by the selection committee [by accessing video footage of the selection process]…for the limited purpose of the petitioner assessing her own performance for future competitions.

Petitioner argued that she had participated in the selection process for the 2023 Asian Games, and that when the final list of selected players was released, she as “utterly shocked” that some candidates who had been selected in her place, had far below her level of accomplishments in the field of Volleyball.

It was argued that the Asian Games was a platform where the best athletes of the country were supposed to perform, and that the alleged non-transparent selection process by an Ad-Hoc committee of the VFI had deprived the petitioner of such an opportunity.

Petitioner prayed for the scorecards of all participants to be disclosed so that the Court could assess whether any arbitrariness had taken place in the selection process.

Upon hearing these submissions, the Court perused the notification for the official selection process which had been released by the VFI.

It observed that the decision of the selection committee will be final and that the said decision to take a call on interpretation of a particular rule at the time of selection trials will be at its sole discretion.

Thought Court acknowledged that there ought to be transparency in the selection process at Asiad level, it held that the “dictum of transparency” could not be stretched to an extent which would intrude into the selection process containing several subjective elements which might not be very clear to the court even if disclosed.

The Bench however attributed some merit to the petitioner’s submission that as an accomplished athlete in the field, she had a right to know the deficiencies as perceived by the selection committee to prepare better for future competitions, and allowed her access to video footage of the process for that limited purpose.

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Cal) 297

Case: Ruksana Khatun Vs. Union of India and others

Case No: WPA No. 20679 of 2023

Click Here To Read/Download Order