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HIGH COURT OF JAMMU & KASHMIR AND LADAKH AT JAMMU Pronounced on : 19.09.2026 Uploaded on : 19.09.2026 Whether the operative part or full judgment is pronounced : Full Case:- WP(C) No. 103/2025 Rajeev Sharma …. Petitioner Through: Mr. Amit Gupta, Advocate, Mr. Gaurav Sadotra, Advocate &

Mr. Sumit Moza, Advocate Vs Union of India and others .…. Respondents Through: Mr. Vishal Sharma, DSGI for R-1.

Mr. M. K. Bhardwaj, Sr. Advocate with Mr. Gagan Kohli & Mr. Abhinav Sharma, Sr. Advocate with Mr. Ajay Vaid, Advocate for R – 3, 5, 6 & 8.

Ms. Anshuja Tak, Advocate for R-4.

Mr. Vikas Magotra, Advocate for R- 9 & 13 to 18.

Coram: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE RAHUL BHARTI, JUDGE

JUDGMENT

01. “It is high time we recognize that sporting facilities and opportunities and material resources of the community and their organizers are the institutions of the national life. As places of public resort, sporting institutions and bodies must remain accessible, not just for pursuing sport, but also for its administration. It should be the deeper Sadhana (endeavour) of the State, and it is also our Constitutional duty to ensure that sporting facilities and opportunities flourish with institutional efficiency, integrity, professionalism and expertise” is the opening edict of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in the case of “All India Football Federation Vs Rahul Mehra and others,” 2025 INSC 1131 under the aegis of which this Court is undertaking the adjudication of this matter which relates to the respondent No. 3 – J&K Olympic Association, an umbrella organization of all the sports in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir in the context of purity and legality of its structure & set up, election process and also of its constitution so as to figure out as to whether it meets the standard of institutional efficiency, integrity, professionalism and expertise as envisaged by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India by reference to the sports bodies of and in India.

02. As the High Court of Delhi came to be harbinger of palliative adjudication setting course correction with respect to functioning of Sports’ Associations so as to make sportspersons real and actual beneficiaries, a like situation has also come to present itself related to very state of functioning of the Jammu & Kashmir Olympic Association which, in turn, is tied up with present and future of sportspersons of UT of J&K, thereby placing an onerous responsibility on this Court to examine things, both in detail and depth, to come up with an adjudication which, in all intent and purposes, is meant to be in long term interest and benefit of all stakeholders, and in particular of sportspersons of UT of J&K.

03. The cause of action for the petitioner to come forward with the present writ petition, instituted on 14.01.2025, accrued when pursuant to impugned election process, the respondents No. 6 to 18 came to be declared elected as president, vice-president and other office bearers as well as executive members of the respondent No. 3 – J&K Olympic Association for a term of next four years, in terms of a purported notification dated 15.12.2024 issued by the respondent No. 5-Chander Shekhar Gupta (Advocate) who purportedly acted and discharged the office of returning officer for the election of the respondent no.3- J&K Olympic Association.

04. The factual chronology of the case falls for its introduction to serve as the perspective in the light whereof the adjudication of the issues involved in the present writ petition is to be undertaken by this Court.

05. As being an outgoing General Secretary of the respondent No. 3 – J&K Olympic Association, the respondent No. 6 – Dushyant Sharma came forward with a paid advertisement notice published in a Daily Excelsior newspaper on 04.11.2024 which is annexed with the writ petition as annexure-VI (paper-book page-321) and which reads as under:-

NOTICE This is for the information of all the J&K Sports Association affiliated to J&K Olympic Association