The court held that compliance with the National Sports Development Code is mandatory for recognition of sports associations, validating the disaffiliation due to violations in governance and electoral process.

JUDGMENT :

SACHIN DATTA, J.

1. The present petition has been filed by the petitioner being essentially aggrieved by the actions of respondent no.1 (the recognised National Sports Federation for the sports of Kho Kho), in disaffiliating the petitioner (a State Association in the state of Uttar Pradesh).

2. The writ petition was originally filed seeking the following prayers:

“a) Issue an appropriate writ, order and/or direction in the nature of mandamus directing Respondent No. 1 to recognize and give effect to the elections for Petitioner’s executive committee held on 27.10.2021 under the supervision of Justice D.P. Singh as the Ld. Returning Officer in terms of the order of this Hon’ble Court dated 09.08.2021, W.P.(C) 863/2021;

b) Issue an appropriate writ, order and/or direction in the nature of mandamus granting re-affiliation to the Petitioner OR IN THE ALTERNATIVE Issue an appropriate writ, order and/or direction in the nature of mandamus directing the Respondent No. 1 to grant re-affiliation to the Petitioner;

c) Issue an appropriate writ, order and/or direction declaring Respondent No. 1’s office order dated 01.12.2022 bearing ID F. No. 2-5 KKFI/EC/ 2019-20/ 2022 and the Affiliation and Election Review Committee’s communication dated 01.12.2022 bearing ID F. No. 2-5/KKFI/EC/2019-2020/2022 to be illegal;

d) Issue an appropriate writ, order and/or direction appointing a retired judge of this Hon’ble Court to inquire into the allegations against Respondent Nos. 1 and 2, along with a representative of Respondent No. 3 Ministry, and submit a report to this Hon’ble Court within eight weeks; and e) Pass any other Order(s) as this Hon’ble Court may deem fit in the facts and circumstances of the present case.”

3. An application for amendment came to be filed by the petitioner (CM APPL. 57053/2023) seeking to urge additional grounds and raise additional prayers in the context of the report of the “Affiliation and Election Review Committee” (AERC) of respondent no.1, which rejects the petitioner’s request for grant of re-affiliation to the petitioner as a recognised State Federation for the sport of Kho Kho in Uttar Pradesh.

4. The said application was allowed vide order dated 18.03.2025. An additional reply has been filed by respondent no.1 in the context of the amended petition.

5. It is the case of the petitioner that it is one of the founding members of the respondent no.1 and functioned as an affiliated State Association for the State of Uttar Pradesh till January 2020, when it was allegedly illegally disaffiliated and its administration was usurped by appointment of an Interim Committee (IC) by respondent no.1 vide office order dated 30.01.2020.

6. It is submitted that the action was taken by respondent no.1 in concert with the Ex-President of the petitioner (Mr. Sanjay Pratap Singh), who issued a letter dated 19.12.2019 to respondent no.1 informing that the petitioner had been dissolved on account of the alleged failure on the part of the then General Secretary of the petitioner to maintain and furnish the documents required by respondent no.1.

7. The order dated 30.01.2020 was predicated on the dissolution of the petitioner by its then President/Mr. Sanjay Pratap Singh. The same led to the filing of a writ petition bearing W.P.(C) 863/2021, titled Mukul Kumar Vs. Union of India , by the office bearers of the District Association (District Kho Kho Association, Bijnor and District Kho Kho Association, Muradabad).

8. In the said writ petition, this Co