AIFF : Supreme Court Orders Expeditious Elections To Have Democratic Body For FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup; Includes Players In Electoral College

The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, directed the Committee of Administrators (CoA) to conduct the elections to the executive committee of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) expeditiously as per the timelines proposed by CoA and consistent with the manner prescribed in Article 26 of the draft Constitution of the AIFF. Article 26 prescribes the term, tenure, age limit and other conditions of eligibility.

A Bench comprising Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and J.B. Pardiwala made it abundantly clear that the elected committee would be an interim body, which would continue for a period of 3 months subject to further orders of the Court. It stated that, in the interim, the constitution of AIFF can be finalized.

"In view of the above, we order and direct -

(1)the election to the executive committee of AIFF to be held expeditiously and concluded in terms of the time-schedule indicated

(2) Elections be conducted in the manner consistent with A. 26 of the draft constitution,

(3) This would be an interim arrangement without prejudice to the rights and contentions of the parties.

(4)It is anticipated that the interim body would continue for a period of 3 months subject to further order of the court so that the constitution can be finalized in the meantime.

(5) Interim body should not claim equities on the basis of the present order and present arrangement would be subject to further orders.

As proposed by the CoA, the Bench thought it fit that for the purpose of the ensuing elections, apart from the representatives of the State Federations, the electoral college would also include representatives of 36 eminent football players - 24 male players and 12 female players, each having qualification of representing India in at least one match in International football and have retired from International football at least 2 years prior to the date of the notification of the election.

The Women's World Cup Tournament will commence on October 11, 2022 and will be hosted by India. The FIFA requires a democratically elected body of AIFF to oversee the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup and therefore the Court had decided to interfere and expedite the election process.

Justice DY Chandrachud lamented that the proposed representation of women in the general body of the National Federation being half that of men, especially when the arrangement is being expedited for the upcoming Women's World Cup Tournament. Senior Advocate, Mr. Gopal Sankaranarayanan had apprised him that the representation of women and men would be 50-50 for future purposes, but at present due to lack of information on women players, the proposed ratio for the present election was 2:1.

"We found that the statistician of AIFF does not have enough statistics regarding the number of matches played; people who have played and very little statistics for women who have played for India. We thought that one match could be the minimum cut off", the senior counsel submitted.

He also informed the Bench that the CoA has considered inclusion of players in the electoral college. It was suggested that out of the 72 members of the electoral college, 36 could be representatives of the State Associations and the remaining 36 would be eminent sports persons. Similarly in the executive body, out of 12 members, it was proposed that at least 5 be eminent sports persons.

The CoA had suggested 3 modalities of working out the inclusion of the sportsperson. One eminent player can be nominated by each State/UT. There can be a National Players Association which would directly make nominations or there could be zonal representations.

Regarding selection of these 36 sports person, it was brought to the notice of the Bench that initially it was proposed that the said Players Association would be constituted and it would select representatives of the eminent football players but, since the process would be time consuming and given the present urgency the sports persons may be chosen on the criteria that they have represented India at least in one international match and have retired from International football at least 2 years prior to the date of the notification of the election. It was submitted that the provision for a 2 year gap from retirement has been suggested to avoid conflict of interest. Mr. Sankaranarayanan added that a consolidated list would be finalised in this regard within a period of 10 days. He pointed out that the model statutes notified by FIFA also provide due representation to players.

Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, appearing for the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, submitted that the National Sports Code is an enabling code and not a restrictive document. It made submissions in line with the ones made by Mr. Sankaranarayanan.

Per contra, Senior Advocate Ms. Menaka Guruswamy appearing on behalf of 35 State Authorities (excluding Goa State Federation), which in turn represents the interest of 7000 clubs, 700 District authorities and 5 lakh football players, submitted that in terms of Clause 9.3(12) of the Guidelines annexed to the National Sports Code, sports persons are entitled to voting rights only in management of National Sports Federation and not in the general body. She also referred to Clause 3.9, 3.10 and 3.20 to argue that the right to vote in election of the executive committee exclusively rests with the State Associations. She urged that the elections should be conducted in consonance with the stipulations in the National Sports Code.

Analysis of the Supreme Court

It referred to the relevant provisions. It noted that Clause 9.3(12) contemplates inclusion of sports persons with voting rights in the management of AIFF; Clause 3.20 states that the inclusion of prominent sports persons is contemplated as members of the State Federation on a tenure basis. Their strength with voting rights should be of a certain minimum percentage, say 25% of the total members representing the federation. The Bench clarified that this 25% is only an indicative figure. It observed -

"In other words, there are two specific provisions that contemplate the inclusion of sports persons."

The Bench of the view that the National Sports Code is not a statute and cannot be read as one. A holistic view of the scheme has to be taken into account to see to it that its purpose his given full effect.

"The national sports code cannot be read in the manner of a stature. A holistic reading is to be provided to effectuate in purpose."

It noted that healthy development of football in the country needs the involvement of the players who have actually played the sport.

"In this backdrop with the need for healthy development of football in India, inclusion of players would be of immense benefit for ensuring the growth of the sport in a healthy and orderly manner."

On 10.11.2017, the Supreme Court had constituted a CoA to -

1. Formulate constitution of the AIFF in consonance with the National Sports Code
2. Ensure the constitution of executive committee of AIFF

By order dated 18.05.2022, the constitution was modified. The CoA at present comprises a former judge of the Apex Court, former Chief Election Commissioner and former Captain of the Indian Football team. The CoA was empowered to provide its inputs to facilitate the adoption of the constitution of AIFF after considering objections and suggestions. The COA was also directed to prepare the electoral college for conducting elections to the executive committee.

In the process, the CoA has consulted the stakeholders and considered their objections. It had met the delegation of FIFA, which had visited India, CoA

On 21.07.2022, the Court noted that the Women's World Cup was due to commence in India and in that regard FIFA has indicated to the CoA that the inaugural of the under 17 tournament should be carried out under the auspices of a democratically elected AIFF. Considering the same directions were issued by the Apex Court to expedite the election process. It was directed to provide a draft proposal in order to facilitate holding of elections. On 28.07.2022, all the parties concerned had beseeched the Court to give specific direction for holding of election.

The Top Court issued the directions while considering the petition field by AIFF assailing Delhi High Court's order dated October 31, 2017, by which the High Court had set aside the election of former Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel, as AIFF's President for his third successive tenure. Patel was elected for the post in December last year, along with the executive committee for 2017-2020 term after the High Court had vacated a stay on the elections.

The High Court had said that the election was held without following the National Sports Code and called for a fresh election within five months. In the meantime, the Bench comprising Justice S. Ravindra Bhat (now a judge of the Supreme Court) and Justice Najmi Waziri had also appointed former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi as the administrator.

The Court's order had come on a plea by Advocate Rahul Mehra, who had pointed out that while the Sports Code made it mandatory for each candidate to be nominated by one member association and seconded by another member, the AIFF had stipulated that each candidate had to be nominated by five member associations.

On November 10, 2017, by way of an interim order, the Top Court had stayed the operation of the Delhi High Court's judgment and the directions issued in para 22. It had also appointed former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi and former Indian football team captain Bhaskar Ganguly as a committee of administrators to bring the AIFF's constitution in sync with the National Sports Code. In May 2022, the Supreme Court had appointed former SC judge Justice AR Dave as the head of the COA.

The apex court said the administrators should prepare a draft of the AIFF constitution and be assisted by the office-bearers while keeping in mind that its reputation is not undermined in FIFA.

[Case Title: AIFF v. Rahul Mehra| SLP(C) No. 30748-30749/2017]

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