Sporting disputes are time sensitive, National Sports Tribunal is a step in right direction
The Indian sporting ecosystem has been mired in disputes for decades. Therefore, the radical reforms in the National Sports Governance Bill of 2025, comes as a breadth of fresh air, for a gasping sporting ecosystem. The principle objective of this bill itself lays down the importance of resolving sport grievances and disputes in a unified, equitable and effective manner, while providing access to such forums.
Most disputes pertaining to sports emanate from elections and selections. Election disputes being around the electoral college, right of a person to contest or vote, disputes amongst voting units and recognition of voting units. Selection mostly deals with sports persons and their support personnel and concerns right to participate or eligibility, bias in selection, bias in giving benefits and awards. The other disputes which would largely cover the ambit of sporting disputes, would be around integrity issues in sports like manipulation of sport event and safeguarding in sports, which covers issues around sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse.
Unlike traditional civil litigation, sporting disputes are time sensitive and require specialized understanding of the administration, the international regulations and decisions. This is critical to sporting disputes, as even domestic disputes need to be resolved as per principles laid down for similar disputes, at the international level. This is because of the pyramid structure of sports, where all powers to govern a sport, flows from the International Olympic Committee and the International Federation of the particular sport.
The recognition of this uniqueness of the sport ecosystem, is reflected in particular in the National Sports Governance Bill 2025, where disputes under the ambit of the International Olympic Committee, International Federation and Court of Arbitration for Sports have been excluded from the jurisdiction of the National Sports Tribunal.
In order to avoid bias, the selection of the members of the National Sports Tribunal has been vested with a selection committee comprising senior members from the Indian judiciary and designated members from the Government of India. The minimum criteria of qualification for the Chairperson and members of the National Sports Tribunal has also been enumerated.
As a legal practitioner, I have observed that the sport disputes are brought to the court for resolution as a matter of urgency. However, the party, who is the beneficiary of such disputes, will always try dilatory tactics to either make the dispute infructuous or to bide time, to make the opposing party lose interest in the dispute. Often conspiracy theories are peddled to scandalize the courts and get favourable orders, when no such conspiracy exists.
Once interim orders are obtained, the disputes are prolonged so that an effective decision itself becomes inconsequential. Most times the crux of the sport dispute, that is to protect the aggrieved party, gets lost in the legal quagmire. Once the National Sports Tribunal is set-up and starts functioning, it is likely to have its hands full right from inception, as all disputes pertaining to the sporting bodies, including those pending before the civil courts will get transferred to this tribunal.
In time with the expertise and experience available with the members of this tribunal, it is hoped that the sport disputes are resolved with moderate costs, expertly and expeditiously, so that the disputes don't hamper India's push towards a sporting power, as India pushes to bid for hosting major games in India.
The role and importance of this National Sports Tribunal to be set-up, under the National Sports Governance Bill cannot be stressed enough. It is hoped that this laudable and important measures sought to be taken by the Government of India through the National Sports Governance Bill 2025, is able to help India realize its sporting ambitions.
(The author is an eminent lawyer, specializing in sports matters)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Deccan Herald
28 minutes ago
- Deccan Herald
Cricket Asia Cup: Gill Returns as the Vice-Captain
Test skipper Shubman Gill's return to vice-captaincy in T20Is was the only major decision the national selectors took while announcing the squad for the Asia Cup on Tuesday, as the wise men chose not to tinker much with a successful combination. While most members of the squad for the continental bash—due to be held in the United Arab Emirates from September 9–28—picked themselves, the major point of deliberation was: Would Gill return to T20Is and, if so, would he replace Axar Patel as the vice-captain? Well, both those questions were answered with an emphatic 'yes' by the selection committee headed by Ajit Agarkar. Gill, who last played a T20I in the bilateral series in Sri Lanka where he was the deputy to Suryakumar Yadav, has been in impressive form since the IPL, and the selectors just couldn't ignore the current superstar of Indian cricket. However, his return will force a change in a settled batting order. Gujarat Titans' captain Gill scored 650 runs in this season's IPL, and he carried that blistering form to England in the five-Test series where he hammered four centuries en route to amassing a record 754 runs. 'The last time when he played T20Is for India, post the T20 World Cup (2024), when we went to Sri Lanka (in July 2024), not the tour of Zimbabwe. I was leading then and he was the vice-captain and that's when we started a new cycle for the next T20 World Cup,' said skipper Suryakumar at a press conference at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai.'After that he got busy with all the Test series at home. He did not get the opportunity to play T20 cricket because he got busy playing Test cricket and also the Champions Trophy. He is there in the squad now and we are happy to have him,' he added. With Gill's return, the management has a tough decision to make in figuring out who opens with the Punjabi. During Gill's absence, Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson racked up runs in blistering fashion, and forcing one of them to drop down the order could be a hard call. Another option is to play Gill at one-drop, which would mean sacrificing the talented Tilak Varma, who scored two back-to-back unbeaten centuries in the series against South Africa last November. Chief selector Ajit Agarkar welcomed the selection headache, saying it's Suryakumar and head coach Gautam Gambhir's problem to solve: 'There are more options for the top order now and Shubman has been in great form anyway. When they get to Dubai, they can decide on the playing XI according to the opposition and the conditions. It's their headache to pick the batting line-up, ours was to pick the 15.' Beyond Gill, there weren't any major surprises, barring the inclusion of lead pacer Jasprit Bumrah. While there wasn't much doubt about his place in the squad—considering the tournament is a major build-up event on the road to the T20 World Cup to be held in India and Sri Lanka early next year—the only point of concern was his workload. 'We have had a nice break from the England series. We are trying to look after him. Most fast bowlers are monitored and it won't change. How we require him for future tournaments is also important,' said Agarkar when asked about Bumrah's workload management.
Indian Express
42 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Nepal stand on trade through Lipulekh not justified: MEA
A day after India and China agreed to the re-opening of border trade through the three designated points, Nepal has objected to the border trade through Lipulekh Pass. Nepal has disputed the Indian claim over Lipulekh in the past. Nepal PM K P Sharma Oli had in 2020 opposed it, passing a map in Parliament, showing the area as part of Nepal. In response to Nepal's stand, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, 'Border trade between India and China through Lipulekh pass commenced in 1954 and has been going on for decades… such claims are neither justified nor based on… evidence.' He said that India remains open to constructive interaction on resolving the boundary issues.
Hindustan Times
42 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Review: Asia After Europe by Sugata Bose
In college, a professor often went on diatribes against Eurocentrism, the practice of viewing the world through the lens of the hegemonic West. While he earnestly taught us the prescribed syllabus for philosophy students, he bemoaned its overwhelming focus on Western philosophy at the expense of, say, Indian, Arab, or Chinese thought. The Asian future: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the G20 Summit in New Delhi on September 9, 2023. (HT Photo) 288pp, ₹699; Harvard University Press However, even as he exhorted us to be aware of our Western blinkers, he acknowledged the impossibility of completely discarding them within our current modes of knowledge production and dissemination. After all, he was railing in English, the link language for us students from across India. But in doing so, he left us with an appreciation of the assumptions that constitute the bedrock of our worldview, what kinds of knowledge we privilege, and the indigenous thinkers and systems we remain unaware of. While this idea has a long lineage in academic circles, it has not always filtered down to the public sphere. In some cases, it has done so in a rather perverse manner. Take the case of the Indian extremists who use the idea of 'decolonisation' to justify parochialism and subjugate minorities. Ironically, their worldview and ideals derive heavily from European fascist ideology. So, in the very act of highlighting their identity in opposition to the West, they adopt European frameworks of identity and nationalism. That is why I think my professor would have approved of Sugata Bose's Asia After Europe: Imagining a Continent in the Long Twentieth Century. Through the works of scholars and political leaders across Asia and the interactions between them, it explores their visions of Asian solidarity and universalism, and the evolution of Asian thought, politics, and art. They not only challenged European colonial precepts, but also conceptualised alternatives to dominant European narratives and debates. In the book, we encounter Okakura Tenshin, José Rizal, Jamaluddin al-Afghani, and Benoy Kumar Sarkar, among other luminaries of the 20th century and earlier. These names might not be as familiar to non-scholars as some of the more notable ones who figure in Bose's account, such as Rabindranath Tagore and Chiang Kai-shek. Yet, they are no less fascinating. Rizal was a Filipino writer and nationalist, whom the Spanish colonial government executed in 1896. He became a unifying symbol of Asian resistance against Western imperialist domination. Okakura, a Japanese art critic and champion of Asian unity, travelled to India and had close links with Swami Vivekananda and Rabindranath Tagore. Al-Afghani, born in Iran, was a 'proponent of Islamic fraternity rather than Asian solidarity', though Bose emphasises that there was significant overlap between the two. Al-Afghani travelled across West and South Asia, and in the latter, stressed Hindu-Muslim unity against the British. Sarkar, an 'energetic, globe-trotting Indian intellectual', visited China and Japan, met intellectuals and politicians there, and extensively documented his journeys and geopolitical insights. The book succinctly captures attempts to forge an Asian identity and consciousness, visions of Asian solidarity, and the schisms caused by intra-Asian wars and conflicts. It provides a refreshing account of Asian histories in relation to each other, often without the Western lens that most works on the continent adopt. Asia has now bypassed other regions as the largest producer, exporter, importer, and consumer of goods. With many heralding the 21st century as the Asian century, Bose's book highlights what potential connections and collaborations between Asian nations could look like. He also explores what it would take for the continent to chart a future that 'expands and not destroys the aspirations of humanity'. In the preface, the author says that he has written the book 'in an accessible literary style for a broad readership'. Indeed, interesting anecdotes, such as about Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru rushing to help Chinese First Lady Madame Chiang put on her shoes during a visit to Shantiniketan, make Bose's historical exploration and arguments engaging. While the book largely eschews jargon and does not require an intimate knowledge of 20th-century history, it would have been good if it had provided more context for the non-scholar. Take, for example, the idea of Asia vis-a-vis Europe. While European nations' collective participation in the European Union and free movements across borders in the Schengen zone have lately reinforced the notion of the continent as a unified entity, it is an idea with a long history. Of course, plenty of myth-making and propaganda over centuries have helped shape it. For example, Europeans assert their antecedence in Greek and Roman empires, while conveniently glossing over how Arab scholars mediated their engagement with these civilisations. They claim the continent is built on Enlightenment ideals (natural law, liberty, rationalism, tolerance, etc.) despite their history of colonisation and perpetuating atrocities on the rest of the world. So, while the notion of Europe might be perverted and self-serving, there is some narrative underpinning it, no matter how flawed. What would an analogous conception of Asia look like? Can one find — or invent — common features among its disparate nations? Are there any unifying links between countries thousands of miles apart, say, Japan and Jordan? There are no clear answers, more so given that the idea of Asia as a singular landmass is also an arbitrary European construct. Historian Sugata Bose (Samir Jana/HT Photo) Nevertheless, the author explores several responses to these questions, such as Sarkar's 'three-fold basis of Asiatic Unity' and pan-Asian art and cultural initiatives, among others. While these are quite illuminating, I wish he had further investigated the meta-critiques regarding what constitutes Asia, especially the continent's conceptions that do not merely rely on Europe as a frame of reference. Besides, the book predominantly focuses on Japan, India, and China, with only fleeting references to the other countries that make up the continent. Would an idea of Asia defined largely by these three regional powers be representative of the entire region? Or would it replicate the hegemonic influence of wealthy western European nations over the idea of Europe? A deeper exploration of these debates would have helped better contextualise Bose's cogent and insightful account. Syed Saad Ahmed is a journalist and communications professional. In 2024, he was selected as a Boston Congress of Public Health Thought Leadership Fellow. He speaks five languages and has taught English in France.
