Attorney General (AG) Mukul Rohatgi informed a three judge bench of the Supreme Court that the government was "mulling" bringing a law which will give more autonomy to sports federations. He said this during the hearing on Justice Lodha Committee reforms for cricket. However, this came as news to the sports ministry, which has been fighting its own battles to bring good governance and transparency into the system.
It appears the decision to bat for Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and other sports bodies was taken at the highest political level, without consulting the union minister for sports Vijay Goel.
The Supreme Court, ignoring the appeal of the AG, said that it was not harming the autonomy of state bodies but removing impurities.
Requesting the three judge bench, consisting of Dipak Misra, A.M.Khanwilkar and D.Y.Chandrachud to defer naming the committee of administrators (COA), set for Tuesday, by two weeks, Rohatgi said, "The government is mulling bringing a sports law via an executive order to give more autonomy to sports bodies."
Rohatgi further argued that dramatic changes in the membership patterns and administrative mechanisms, as witnessed in BCCI's case, will have international ramifications. Essentially, he indicated that changes in the structure and constitution of sports federations, as per Lodha reforms, could lead to the international parent bodies of these federations objecting to "interference”.
The sports ministry had introduced the national sports development bill in an effort to regulate sports bodies and bring in transparency during the previous UPA regime. The bill, drafted under the guidance of then union minister Ajay Maken, was scuttled at the cabinet level, with many senior UPA ministers strongly objecting to it. Even during the consultation process, senior politicians led by the current finance minister Arun Jaitley had strongly opposed the purpose of the bill.
However, Rohatgi's pronouncement baffled the top officials of the sports ministry. A senior official, on condition of anonymity, played safe and said, "Government has constituted a committee which will examine all options and submit its recommendations to the government."
The official did not say explicitly whether the original bill was being revived or modified. Another top official reacted by saying , "This is news to me."
The committee was set up by the sports ministry on January 5 to study recent developments related to sports governance and international best practices and make recommendations to bring in a comprehensive national sports development code.
In any case, the original sports bill was not about granting greater autonomy to federations, it was about ushering in greater transparency and accountability in their functioning. Therefore, a new sports law will have to be a diluted or modified version of the original.
If the government is using the executive order route, then it will have to issue orders to add/amend the existing national sports code. The code, too, cannot be in defiance of a Supreme Court order.
The apex court, however, brushed aside AG's demand to defer naming COA by two weeks, saying, "You are only mulling the legislation, right? You are also not sure of how the legislation will impact the international sports arena, are you?" observed Justice Dipak Misra.
The AG had no clear idea as to how exactly the Government intended to grant more autonomy to sports federations, while it was also actively pursuing national sports federations to follow good governance practices. Just recently, the union sports ministry had come down hard on Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to after the latter decided to make tainted officials its life presidents.
Misra then told the packed court that, "We (SC) are not trying to destroy the autonomy of sports bodies. We are removing impure elements , so that they gain autonomy.”
In fact, Justice Misra angrily posed to Rohatgi when the latter was making his submissions, "Where were you when we heard the matter at length? Why did you not intervene earlier?" Rohatgi had joined the arguments only recently, a point which he concurred with during the hearing.
The Government's strong support for BCCI, post the retirement of former chief justice of T.S.Thakur, has raised many eyebrows.
