New Delhi, May 22 (IANS) Hockey India (HI) and the court reinstated Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) have interpreted the Delhi High Court order to suit their line of thinking and questioned each other’s existence.
While HI secretary general Narinder Batra says Friday’s court order does not bar him from holding the election to the new body, which came into existence after the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) derecognised IHF headed by K. P. S. Gill, a senior IHF functionary has questioned HI’s very right to exist.
Batra said decks have been cleared for HI election in June and the election notice will be issued in four-five days.
‘The court order has no bearing on HI status as it is recognised by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) after it disaffiliated the IHF,’ Batra told IANS.
‘If you read the whole order, the judge clearly said ‘I am not here to decide the validity of HI’.’
‘It does not affect us. Yes it is true that two bodies cannot exist, but international federation has disaffiliated IHF and later the Indian Women’s Hockey Federation in 2000. They failed to merge the men’s and women’s units and since then they had affiliated Indian Hockey Confederation (IHC) which was also derecognised later.’
The IHF member says the HI cannot go ahead with the polls as the sports ministry has to respect the court order, having filed an affidavit that it did not recognise HI.
‘What is HI’s status? A five-member body cannot call itself a national federation. Now that the IHF has been reinstated, HI cannot hold the election, more so after the court clearly stated that the government and ministry should recognise IHF,’ a top IHF official told IANS.
‘Moreover, the ministry in its affidavit to the court has said that it does not recognise HI. Yes, the international body will recognise the unit that is affiliated to the National Olympic Commitee. So we are waiting for the response of the IOA and the ministry before deciding on the future course of action.’
Batra said HI is ready to hold the election to replace the ad hoc body running the sport in the country.
‘There was a stay order in the elections in three courts of the country –Rajasthan, Mumbai and Tripura. We have got the stay vacated from all three courts, the last one was Tripura. We are waiting for a copy of that order and then we will go ahead with the election process.’
On other court cases, Batra said: ‘They are minor disputes and it will not hamper the election.’
‘All 30 units and four insitutationals approved by HI are valid to take part in the elections.’
‘We have implemented all the government guidelines for free, fair and transparent election. A retired judge will be the returning officer as mandated by sports ministry. There will be separate election observers from the government, the IOA and the FIH. Also, voting will be held in secret ballot.’
‘We will issue the 21-day notice period before the elections in four or five days and it should take place in June. We are constant touch with the FIH and we keep them updated.’
Asked about Amrit Bose, Pargat Singh and others crying foul over the manner in which HI is going about the election, Batra said: ‘I do not understand how can they criticise the process when Amrit Bose, Gurbax Singh, Pargat Singh are signatories to the affiliations given to the state units.’
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