Verify if archery body has amended constitution: SC to Centre

The Supreme Court today directed the Centre to verify whether the Archery Association of India (AAI) has amended its constitution in accordance with the 2011 National Sports Development Code (NSDC).

The apex court's direction came during the hearing of the AAI's plea against a Delhi High Court verdict of August 10, appointing former chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi to look into the functioning of association which was de- recognised by the government in 2012 for four months.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra was told by the AAI that the high court should not have appointed Quraishi to look into the affairs of the association.
 

"We have amended our constitution in accordance with the National Sports Development Code, 2011," senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the archery body, told the bench.

The bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, asked Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh to look into the amended constitution and the NSDC, 2011 and apprise the court about it within 10 days.

The bench then fixed the matter for hearing on October 9.

Advocate Rahul Mehra, on whose plea the high court has passed the verdict, contended before the top court that AAI's constitution was to be amended as per the NSDC, 2011.

He also questioned the functioning of AAI and said that one of its office bearers had held the post for over three decades and, during the earlier election of the association, several anomalies had surfaced.

The high court had appointed Quraishi, who has also served as the secretary in the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, as the administrator-cum-returning officer to look into the affairs of the AAI.

It had directed the holding of elections for the posts of office-bearers of AAI, who would amend the constitution in accordance with the NSDC.

Mehra had approached the high court seeking to appoint an administrator for compliance of its December, 2016 order to hold elections for the various posts of AAI.

The high court, in its 19-page verdict, had also said that its earlier orders of September and October 2012, which had directed that the elections be held in accordance with the NSDC, were disregarded.