Olympians file petition in SC for Lodha reforms in all all other sports

A group of retired sports persons, including Olympians and Test cricketers, have filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court to incorporate the sweeping recommendations of the apex court-appointed Justice Lodha Committee for cricket into all other sports in the country. 

The petition, in form of PIL, has been filed in the wake of the Supreme Court passing its final order, after it accepted its specially appointed Justice Lodha Committee's recommendations for sweeping reforms in the BCCI, said a media release issued on the petitioners' behalf.

"We, 28 former Olympians, Padma Shri, Arjuna Awardees, Dronacharya Awardees, Test Cricketers along with some administrators from sports disciplines in Hockey, Football, Cricket, Athletics, Volleyball, Badminton, Kabaddi, Swimming and  Para Olympics have filed this petition in the Supreme Court for the below  mentioned reasons and betterment of sports promotion and development in India," said the release. 

The petitioners are Ashok Kumar Dhyan Chand, M K Kaushik, Jwala Gutta, Ashwini Nachappa, Edward Sequeira, G E Sridharan, Reeth Abraham, Gurbax Singh Grewal, Balbir Singh, Fortunato Franco, S S Narayan, Joaquim Carvalho, Vandana Rao, Pravin Thipsay, Bhagyasree Thipsay, Maya Meher, Nisha Millet, Aloysius Edwards, Madhu Yadav, Kirti Azad, Bishen Singh Bedi, Sameer Bahadur, KPS Gill, Ashok Mathur and Virender Kumar.

 "It may be observed that some of the recommendations made by the Justice Lodha Committee are already found in the National Sports Code. However, some of the salient and salutary recommendation need to be adopted by the Government of India in the National Sports Code to ensure the smooth, transparent manner which is most beneficial for the development of the sport," they said in the release. 

"It is submitted that like in the game of cricket several oligarchies exist in other sports' administration which is to the great detriment of the respective sports. It may also be noted that there is an urgent need to amend and rework the National Sports Code so as to ensure that sports administration is not treated as a self perpetuating business but instead must be for the betterment of the sports concerned. 

"Since all the sports associations other than the BCCI fall within the remit of the Central Government, the Sports Ministry of Central Government can pass an order seeking the implementation of some of the recommendation of the Justice Lodha Committee in so far as other sports bodies are concerned," they added. 

"The petition is seeking a positive direction from the Hon'ble Court for the incorporation of some of the recommendations in other sports bodies in order to promote transparency in the game as well as to ensure the betterment of the sports and also in the interest of the players of the sports," said the release. 

"The effort is to seek an all encompassing Order from the Supreme Court in the nature of a mandamus to the Central Government to amend the National Sports Code, in order to incorporate some of the salutary recommendations made by the Justice Lodha Committee for other sports bodies," the release added. The petition was filed before the apex court was closed for the Christmas break, one of the petitioners told PTI.