Hockey coach Sandeep Sangwan moves HC over being ignored for Dronacharya Award

New Delhi, Nov 9: Hockey coach Sandeep Sangwan on Tuesday urged the Delhi High Court to quash the decision of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports' order excluding him from the Dronacharya Award (Regular Category) for 2021.

Justice Rekha Palli asked the Centre to take instructions and listed the matter for further hearing on November 12.

In his petition, Sangwan alleged that he was ignored by the Centre from being considered for the Dronacharya Award although the Selection Committee for Sports Award 2021 had found him meritorious.

Senior advocate Rahul Mehra, representing Sangwan, told the court that the hockey coach was ignored despite being the most meritorious candidate who secured the highest points for the sport of hockey in terms of the Scheme for Dronacharya Award for Outstanding Coaches in Sports and Games of the ministry.

Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma represented the Centre.

The plea, filed through advocate R Arunadhri Iyer, said: "The petitioner is given to understand that for the sport of Hockey, four persons had applied, including the petitioner, and of this, he had scored more than twice of what the next highest candidate in terms of the Scheme and Criteria. "The petitioner is also given to understand from reliable and trustworthy sources that the candidate who eventually has now been awarded the Award had scored less than half of what the petitioner had scored in terms of the Scheme/ Criteria. In the circumstances, awarding the Award to the said candidate to the exclusion of the petitioner is contrary to the express provisions of...the Criteria".

The plea also sought to lay down a proper time schedule for declaration of the Dronacharya Award and other sports awards in future, by the end of May every year so as to provide reasonable time and opportunity to elite sportspersons in this regard.

As per the petition, Sandeep Sangwan is an experienced hockey coach who has trained four of the members of the team that obtained bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics, 2020 along with numerous other Olympians, as well as Padma Shri and Arjuna awardees and a Khel Ratna awardee. PTI