New Delhi, Mar 25 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Tuesday commenced hearing on pleas related to the finalisation of All India Football Federation’s Constitution after its draft was prepared by former apex court judge Justice L Nageswara Rao on the apex court’s direction.
A batch of pleas including one filed by the Federation was listed for final hearing before the bench comprising Justices PS Narasimha and Joymalya Bagchi.
The pleas were put up before the bench headed by Justice Narasimha as Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna on January 6 recused himself from hearing, saying he might have heard these cases in the Delhi High Court earlier.
Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who is assisting the bench as an amicus curiae, started the submissions by referring to important clauses of the AIFF’s Constitution and said that some members and former players have certain objections to certain clauses.
He said a person can remain an elected office bearer of the AIFF for a total period of 12 years and the cooling off period of four years has to be observed after eight years as an office bearer of the sports body. Also, a person cannot remain a member of the sports body after attaining 70 years of age.
The bench said it will hear on next Wednesday the counsel who have objections to the draft Constitution of the sports body.
Earlier, the top court had asked former apex court judge L Nageswara Rao to prepare the Constitution of the AIFF.
Later, the bench took note of the draft Constitution and asked Justice Rao to prepare a report after taking note of the objections of various stakeholders to various constitutional schemes.
It had directed the Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL), a Reliance subsidiary that operates a top-tier football league, the Indian Super League, to bear the expenses of the Justice Rao panel.
“In the circumstances, we request Justice L N Rao, former judge of this court, to take up the task of considering the draft Constitution as proposed by the Committee of Administrators (CoA of AIFF) which is now been propounded by the learned amicus curiae (senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan),” it had said.
The bench urged the former judge to hear all stakeholders including AIFF, state football associations, the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and FSDL on the draft constitution in preparing the final report.
“The exercise of considering the draft Constitution and submitting a comprehensive report, bearing in mind the objections which have been addressed by all the stakeholders, will be effectively carried out by July 31, 2023,” it had said.
The bench was hearing a plea related to the finalisation of the Constitution of the AIFF after taking note of “clause-by-clause” objections of various stakeholders of football in the country.
The bench took note of the submissions of amicus curiae Sankaranarayanan that in certain respects, the suggestions to the draft constitution have been accepted except those which were “in breach of either the judgements of this court or the national sports code”. PTI SJK RT
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