The Delhi High Court has constituted a three-member committee, headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Vikramjit Sen, to probe the allegations of star table tennis player Manika Batra of attempted match-fixing by the national coach.
Hearing Batra’s plea against the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI), Justice Rekha Palli said Justice AK Sikri, another former Supreme Court judge, and Arjuna awardee and Padma Shri winning athlete Gurbachan Singh Randhawa would also be part of the committee. .
Batra, who was left out of the Indian contingent for the Asian Table Tennis Championships, had earlier this year approached the court alleging that national coach Soumyadeep Roy had pressured one of his trainees to “throw him” in an Olympic qualifier match. was put
It also claimed that TTFI was conducting its selection processes in a non-transparent manner and was targeting some individuals like itself.
Considering the serious nature of the allegations leveled by the petitioner, the judge requested the committee to conduct an inquiry at the earliest and submit its report within four weeks.
However, since this Court had already directed on 23rd September, 2021 that the allegations made by the Petitioner should be examined by an independent body other than Respondent No. 1 (TTFI), and since the Committee appointed by the Respondent No. .2 (Centre) has failed to investigate the same, it is considered appropriate to appoint a three-member committee to inquire into the complaints of the petitioner made against respondent No. 3 (National Coach) and other officers of his respondent No. 1. Correspondence dated August 14, 26 and September 17, 2021, the court said in its order passed on November 17.
The court recorded that the parties would cooperate in the process and said that the committee would be free to adopt its own procedure following the principles of natural justice.
Each of the three members of the Committee, including the Chairperson, shall be paid an amount of five lakh rupees—an amount payable by the Respondent No. 1 Federation, as done by its counsel on its behalf. The venue for the inquiry shall be arranged by the Respondent No. 1 Association in consultation with the Chairman of the Committee, and the cost thereof, along with the secretarial services, if any, shall also be borne by the Respondent No. 1 Association, it added.
The Commonwealth Games gold medalist and Khel Ratna awardee, in her petition, has sought quashing of TTFI’s norms of mandatory attendance at national coaching camps for selection in international competitions.
The petition by Batra, the country’s top-ranked female player, said that the national coach, in an apparent conflict of interest, was simultaneously running a private table tennis academy and, on one occasion, “pressurised the petitioner to throw only one match”. . To help one of his trainees in his private academy to qualify for the Olympics, 2020.”
The paddler later claimed that he was being targeted by the national federation for raising his complaints in court and now the international federation is also treating him like an accused.
On 16 November, TTFI said that the sports body’s executive board has decided to show cause as well as withdraw all consequential actions against the paddler and urged the court to allow it to be proved genuine.
Earlier, the Center had said that the federation’s rule on compulsorily participating in the national camp was under the Sports Code and defeated the qualification.
The TTFI defended the rule, saying such a mandate existed in other sports, including weightlifting and judo.
While staying the rule on 23 September, the court had said that the mandatory attendance at the national camp was “imposed at the time when the complaint against the national coach was pending” and the same “does not inspire confidence”.
On November 15, the court had said that it wanted any player to be harassed unnecessarily and asked the TTFI to give a clean chit to the petitioner.
In view of the report of the inquiry conducted by the Center as per its direction, the court had held that the player cannot be held responsible for any wrongdoing.
It had also pulled up the TTFI for “overreaching” its order directing a probe by the Center into its cases, saying it would commit “super motu contempt”.
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