Supreme Court directs inclusion of Paralympian shooter Naresh Kumar for Tokyo games

New Delhi, Aug 02: In a major victory before firing a shot in the upcoming Tokyo Paralympics, the Supreme Court Monday ordered that the PCI immediately include Arjuna awardee and five-time Paralympian shooter Naresh Kumar Sharma as an additional participant for the sporting mega-event in Japan.

"We direct the Respondent no.1 (Paralympics Committee of India) to immediately recommend name of the petitioner (Sharma) as an additional participant or additional entry in the 50 m para shooter category of Paralympics and report compliance by tomorrow," a three-judge bench of justices AM Khanwilkar, BR Gavai and Krishna Murari ordered in an urgent hearing this afternoon.

The hearing assumed significance as the shooter, through senior lawyer Vikas Singh, mentioned the matter for hearing on Monday itself before a bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana by referring to the urgency saying that any delay would render his plea for selection infructuous as August 2 is the last day for the entry forms to sent.

The CJI had assured the senior lawyer that he would see the files and decide and this led to listing of case for immediate hearing during the day itself. "Today is the last day," Singh argued.

The three judge bench took up the case and asked about the representation from the PCI and was told that the President of the committee "switched off her phone after speaking for 5 minutes" with a lawyer named Satyam.

The bench said it would issue directions if the sports committee does not want to appear and asked Additional Solicitor General KM Natrajan, appearing for Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, about his views on "cut-off date for entering the bubble".