Judicial Analysis Court Copy Headnote Facts Arguments Court observation

2022 Supreme(SC) 1499

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
Dr. Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, Surya Kant, Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha, JJ.
All India Football Federation – Appellant
Versus
Rahul Mehra & Ors. – Respondents
SLP (Civil) Nos 30748-30749 of 2017
Decided On : 18-05-2022

Advocates appeared:
Mr. Shyam Divan, Sr. Advocate, Mr. Siddharth Bhatnagar, Sr. Advocate, Mr. Premtosh Mishra, Advocate, Mr. Debmalya Banerjee, Advocate, Mr. Kartik Bhatnagar, Advocate, Mr. Anmol, Advocate, Mr. Nicholas Choudhary, Advocate, Mr. Shreesh Chadha, Advocate, Mr. Adith, Advocate, for M/S. Karanjawala & Co., Advocate, For the Appellant / Mr. Rahul Mehta (In-person) Mr. Chaitanya Gosain, Advocate, Mr. Parshant Bhushan, Advocate, Mr. Kotla Harshavardhan, Advocate, Mr. Kshitij Maheshwari, Advocate, Mr. N. Sai Vinod, Advocate, Ms. Swarupama Chaturvedi, Advocate, Mr. Kanu Agarwal, Advocate, Mr. Apoorv Kurup, Advocate, Mr. Amrish Kumar, Advocate, Mr. Hemant Phalpher, Advocate, Mr. Nar Hari Singh, Advocate, Dr. Amaresh Kumar, Advocate, Mr. Shuvodeep Roy, Advocate, Mr. Anshuman Amaresh, Advocate, Mr. Gaurav Kumar, Advocate, Mr. Nagarkatti Kartik Uday, Advocate, For the Respondent.

The court emphasized the temporary nature of the arrangement and the need for expeditious completion of the election process in the governance of the All India Football Federation.

Headnote:
Intervention - Constitution of All India Football Federation - - [National Sports Code, Model Guidelines] - The court allowed the Committee of Administrators (CoA) to submit its report on the proposed Constitution of the All India Football Federation. The Constitution was directed to be presented to the court in a sealed cover and circulated to all parties for objections and suggestions. The CoA was reconstituted to take charge of the affairs of the Federation and facilitate the adoption of the Constitution, conduct elections, and govern the Federation until elections are held. The court emphasized the temporary nature of the arrangement and the need for expeditious completion of the election process.
Fact of the Case:

The court allowed the Committee of Administrators (CoA) to submit its report on the proposed Constitution of the All India Football Federation and reconstituted the CoA to take charge of the Federation's affairs.
Finding of the Court:

The court emphasized the temporary nature of the arrangement and the need for expeditious completion of the election process.
Issues: Constitution of All India Football Federation, CoA's role, election process, governance of the Federation
Ratio Decidendi: The court allowed the CoA to facilitate the adoption of the Constitution, conduct elections, and govern the Federation until elections are held, emphasizing the temporary nature of the arrangement and the need for expeditious completion of the election process.
Final Decision: The CoA was allowed to submit its report on the proposed Constitution, reconstituted to take charge of the Federation's affairs, and directed to facilitate the adoption of the Constitution, conduct elections, and govern the Federation until elections are held.

ORDER

1. Application for intervention[1] is allowed.

[1] IA 52826 of 2022

2. By an interim order dated 10 November 2017, a Committee of Administrators[2] (also described as Ombudsmen), was constituted for (i) formulating the Constitution of the All India Football Federation[3] in consonance with the National Sports Code and the Model Guidelines; (ii) ensuring the constitution of the Executive Committee and for holding elections.

[2] "CoA"

[3] "Federation"

3. The CoA has sought the permission of the Court to submit its report. Mr Samar Bansal, counsel appearing on behalf of CoA submits that before the report was finalized, the CoA circulated the draft report to the constituent units to elicit responses. The report has been finalized after taking into consideration the responses which were received.

4. The CoA, acting under the authority assigned to it by this Court in terms of the above order has sought the permission to place the Constitution for further consideration. The request of the CoA is allowed.

5. The proposed Constitution of the All India Football Federation which has been directed to be presented to court in a sealed cover in the earlier interim order shall be circulated to all the parties. Any objection or suggestion to the Constitution, as proposed, shall be filed only before this Court on or before 30 June 2022. Any party desirous of obtaining a copy of the proposed Constitution would be at liberty to email its request to Mr Samar Bansal, counsel appearing on behalf of CoA. Mr Bansal will circulate the proposed Constitution to the parties and to any other constituent unit. Thereafter, all objections and suggestions shall also be emailed to Mr Bansal who shall collate the objections for the purpose of rendering facilitative assistance to this Court. Counsel is requested to prepare a tabulated statement of:

(i) The parties submitting suggestions/objections:

(ii) The nature of the suggestions/objections; and

(iii) The inputs of the CoA on the proposed suggestions/objections.

6. This exercise shall be carried out by the CoA on or before 15 July 2022 and a tabulated statement shall be placed on the record. The tabulated statement shall also be circulated to all the parties so as to apprise them of the position.

7. The elections of the Executive Committee which were held on 21 December 2016 were set aside by the judgment of the Division Bench of the High Court of Delhi dated 31 October 2017. During the pendency of these proceedings, by the interim order dated 10 November 2017, the operation of the judgment of the High Court was stayed, including the directions which were issued in paragraph 22 of the judgment. The normal tenure of the elected body would, in any event, have come to an end on 20 December 2020. The consequence of the order of stay is that despite the expiry of its four year term, the Executive Committee has continued to govern the affairs of the Federation. This state of affairs is not in the interest of the proper governance of the Federation. Hence, the two member CoA which was appointed by the order of this Court dated 10 November 2017 with a specific mandate to prepare the Constitution and hold elections to the Executive Committee, is reconstituted to consist of the following members:

(i) Mr Justice Anil R Dave, former Judge of the Supreme Court;

(ii) Dr S Y Qureshi, former Chief Election Commissioner; and

(iii) Mr Bhaskar Ganguly, former captain of the Indian Football Team.

8. The CoA shall take charge of the affairs of the Federation and shall carry out the following functions:

(i) The CoA shall assist this Court and provide its inputs in the course of the present proceedings so as to facilitate the adoption of the Constitution after the objections/suggestions are considered;

(ii) The CoA shall prepare the electoral roll/college for the purpose of conducting the elections to the Executive Committee in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, as proposed, subject to such further directions as may be issued b

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