Delhi High Court Appoints Former SC Judge Justice Vineet Saran As Returning Officer For TTFI Elections

The Delhi High Court has appointed the retired Supreme Court Judge, Justice Vineet Saran, as the returning officer for conducting elections of the Executive Committee (EC) of Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI).

Justice Rekha Palli requested the former judge to prepare the electoral college and conduct the elections as per the federation's constitution. The retired judge has also asked to ensure that only those state associations which are compliant with the Sports Code are permitted to participate in the elections.

The returning officer, will be paid a sum of Rs. 7,50,000 besides secretarial expenses, which will be borne by the TTFI, Justice Palli said in an order on October 17.

The order has been passed in the petition filed by Table Tennis player Manika Batra. Though the plea was mainly against the TTFIl rules that made attending of National Coaching Camp compulsory for being selected for international events, the court has been monitoring the probe into affairs of the federation.

In February, the court appointed a three member-committee of administrators (CoA) with former Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court, Justice Gita Mittal as Chairperson to manage the affairs of TTFI.

Previously, an independent three-member Inquiry Committee was also appointed to look into the complaint of Batra who had made allegations against the national coach Soumyadeep Roy. The said Committee consisted of two former judges of the Supreme Court and a former athlete.

A report was then submitted by the Inquiry Committee stating that TTFI had failed in discharging the obligations cast upon it as a National Sports Federation (NSF) to work for the welfare of the sportspersons and promotion of the sport.

On Monday, the court noted the CoA has been diligently discharging its duties, keeping in mind the interest of the sport as well as the sportspersons, while being mindful of valuable resources. Justice Palli said the CoA has made efforts to streamline the manner of conducting the federation's affairs.

While the court was still considering the objections of the federation's EC to the Inquiry Committee's report, it was informed that International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) had on August 15 addressed a communication to the CoA stating therein that unless a democratically elected Executive Body was brought in place to manage the affairs of the federation, the ITTF may have to take appropriate protective steps including suspension of the TTFI as a member of the ITTF.

Accordingly, it was decided that elections be held to choose a new EC. However, the Centre told the court that till an inquiry is held into the affairs of the existing EC, none of its 23 members be permitted to participate in any forthcoming elections.

Noting that while members of the EC cannot be held guilty of any misconduct without being granted due opportunity, the Court said that findings of the Inquiry Committee and specific observations of CoA regarding functioning of the federation cannot be ignored.

"It will be an unfortunate day for the game if all the observations of the Inquiry Committee or the CoA regarding the misconduct of the members of the EC are ultimately found to be true," the court said.

It added "In my considered view, at this stage, when the comments of the CoA point towards a very sorry picture in the functioning of the EC and, especially its observations that the EC is being run by only two or three persons, it would be against the interest of the sport if this issue is simply closed at this premature stage itself."

"The permission to the existing members of the EC to participate in the election would not only be against the interest of the country, but will clearly demoralise the sportspersons, whose faith in the system appears to have been restored to some extent, as is evident from the laurels brought to the Country by the sportspersons in the game of Table Tennis in the recent Commonwealth Games and other international events."

The court ordered that if after considering the federation's pending objections, it has to be held that no further inquiry into its affairs was necessary, the Court may consider passing appropriate orders for conducting fresh elections by permitting the existing EC members to participate in the same.

However, it added that at the present stage, none of the existing members would be eligible to participate in elections.

"The factum of the elections being subject to outcome of the present petition, the present members of the EC being ineligible to participate in these elections would be made clear in the election notice to be issued by the Returning Officer," it said.

Batra was aggrieved over the fact that she was left out of the contingent being sent for the 25th ITTF Asian Table Tennis Championships, 2021.

The petition alleged that Soumyadeep Roy, the national coach, had pressured Batra to "throw away" a match with a view to help one of his trainees at his private academy to qualify for the Olympics, 2020. She thus sought enquiry into the Federation's management and conduct of Roy.

The Court in November last year decided to constitute a 3-member committee to inquire into the allegations of match-fixing levelled by Batra against national coach Soumyadeep Roy.

Case Title: Manika Batra v. Table Tennis Federation of India & Ors.

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Del) 981

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