Ask RK Anand to take over IOA legal cases: Bholanath Singh to Batra

Indian Olympic Association (IOA) Associate Executive Council Member Bholanath Singh on Friday requested its president Narinder Dhruv Batra to ask IOA's Legal Committee Chairman RK Anand take over its legal cases.

"Request please ask R K Anand Chair of IOA Legal Committee to take control of IOA legal cases," said Bholanath Singh in his letter to Batra.

The request came after the Delhi High Court on Friday did not allow Sports Ministry to grant provisional recognitions to 57 National Sports Federations (NSF).

Bholanath blamed secretary-general Rajeev Mehta and vice-president Sudhanshu Mittal for ruining the sports in India.

"I understand that the Court today did not allow recognition of 57 NSF and next date is in August 2020. Athletics, Hockey, Weightlifting which are training for 2020 Olympic will now stop. Stopping of training is very bad for athletes. IOA lawyers and Government lawyers as usual did not do anything in court today also," Bholanath wrote.

The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has filed an application before the high court seeking its consent for provisionally granting annual recognition to the National Sports Federations (NSFs).

A division bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Najmi Waziri issued a notice to Mehra and listed the matter for further hearing on August 7. The Ministry had filed the application after the Delhi High Court directed it to recall the decision to give provisional renewal of recognition to the NSFs.

Bholanath said that both general secretary and vice-president will try their best to disrupt the training of athletes because they do not want to promote sports in the country.

"Rajeev Mehta Secretary-General who handles legal cases of IOA does not know anything about law and that is why IOA mostly loses cases or compromises in cases and sometime also plays fixed matches. No athlete from Fencing has qualified for Tokyo 2020 and Kho Kho is not an Olympic Sport. Both Rajeev Mehta and Sudhanshu Mittal will try their best to see that training of athletes does not start because it suits them and India wins less medals. They are not in IOA to promote sports but to ruin sports in India," the letter further read.

A division bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Najmi Waziri issued a notice to Mehra and listed the matter for further hearing on August 7.

The Ministry had filed the application after the Delhi High Court directed it to recall the decision to give provisional renewal of recognition to the NSFs.

The high court had, on June 24, asked the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sport to maintain status quo in respect of the decision to provisionally renew the annual recognition of 54 National Sports Federations till further orders.

The Ministry, in its current application, sought consent for the approval till September 30 submitting that due to COVID-19 lockdown the documents are yet to be scrutinized and the recognition be granted provisionally. The application has also clarified that only those NSFs, which were recognised last year, will be recognised and added that the ones that have been suspended will continue to remain so.

( With inputs from ANI )