Delhi HC to hear plea for direction to Centre on sports bodies

New Delhi, Feb 17 (PTI) The Delhi High Court todaydecided to hear a plea for a direction to the Centre to holdelection for the posts of Chairman in various sports bodies,including Indian Olympic Association(IOA), as per thegovernment''s May 1, 2010, guidelines fixing 70 as the upperage limit and 12 years as the maximum tenure.

A bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra will hear theplea on March 1 filed by Rahul Mehra seeking intervention ofthe court to hold free and fair election for heads of varioussports bodies, including IOA, as they have been holding theposts beyond the stipulated period.

Mehra, in his application, has stated the government hasnot complied with the direction of this very court in Novemberfor implementaion of the National Sports Policy and thegudelines fixing the tenure of chiefs of national sportsfederations.

He also sought an order to stop financial and otherassistance to all sports federations and withdrawl of power toselect participants for different international sports events.

Earlier, the Centre had informed that on May last year itcame out with the guidelines, fixing 70 years as the upper agelimit for heads of the sports bodies and stipulating that theywould not continue in the post for more than 12 years, with orwithout a break.

The guidelines also provided that the secretaries andtreasurers of national sports federations and also IOA shouldnot have more than two successive tenures of four years each.