Nat’l Games selection retrial delay: HC says sportspersons suffer | Mumbai News

Mumbai: Bombay High Court on Friday refused to direct postponement of a swimming event to be conducted from Jan 29 as part of the 38th National Games in Uttarakhand. However, it slammed the state for its ‘lapse’ in finding neutral judges from outside Maharashtra to conduct the selection retrial.
“The scenario projected before us in the present writ petition (by four swimmers) is a clear picture of how sports/games are looked at by the state of Maharashtra and how the sports fraternity suffers on account of its apathy,” said Justices Bharati Dangre and Ashwin Bhobe.
Maharashtra State Aquatic Coordination Committee (MSACC) was appointed by Swimming Federation of India (SFI) to conduct trials. Following swimmer Hrutika Shriram’s complaint that trials conducted on Jan 4 and 5 were unfair and biased, the SFI set aside entries for the diving team (women) and directed that final entries be re-submitted after a fresh selection trial is conducted by appointing neutral judges from outside Maharashtra.
MSACC directed the conduct of retrials on Jan 11. The judges said the “unfortunate part of the whole scenario is, today a week ahead of January 29, MSACC has not been able to find neutral persons to act as judges” and fresh trials have not yet been conducted. “The consequence of this lapse is that the cut-off date for submission of entries of the Maharashtra diving team being Jan 18, the team of Maharashtra is likely to miss the national events of swimming,” they added. They noted on an earlier occasion, names of two petitioners and Shriram were forwarded as part of the Maharashtra diving team.
Refusing the petitioners’ request, the judges said, “There would be participants from various states, and in their absence, it would be difficult for us to postpone the entire event.” In the ‘peculiar scenario’, they directed MSACC to make a representation to SFI or the Games Technical Conduct Committee (GTCC) “for an extension to forward names of swimmers from Maharashtra.
They said it is up to GTCC to take an appropriate decision on such a request. Since GTCC is not a party and the event is of national interest, it may not be appropriate to direct it to take a decision in a particular way, “but we expect them to adopt a sympathetic approach so that the swimmers from Maharashtra may not lose an opportunity to participate in the national event.”
Mumbai: Bombay High Court on Friday refused to direct postponement of a swimming event to be conducted from Jan 29 as part of the 38th National Games in Uttarakhand. However, it slammed the state for its ‘lapse’ in finding neutral judges from outside Maharashtra to conduct the selection retrial.
“The scenario projected before us in the present writ petition (by four swimmers) is a clear picture of how sports/games are looked at by the state of Maharashtra and how the sports fraternity suffers on account of its apathy,” said Justices Bharati Dangre and Ashwin Bhobe.
Maharashtra State Aquatic Coordination Committee (MSACC) was appointed by Swimming Federation of India (SFI) to conduct trials. Following swimmer Hrutika Shriram’s complaint that trials conducted on Jan 4 and 5 were unfair and biased, the SFI set aside entries for the diving team (women) and directed that final entries be re-submitted after a fresh selection trial is conducted by appointing neutral judges from outside Maharashtra.
MSACC directed the conduct of retrials on Jan 11. The judges said the “unfortunate part of the whole scenario is, today a week ahead of January 29, MSACC has not been able to find neutral persons to act as judges” and fresh trials have not yet been conducted. “The consequence of this lapse is that the cut-off date for submission of entries of the Maharashtra diving team being Jan 18, the team of Maharashtra is likely to miss the national events of swimming,” they added. They noted on an earlier occasion, names of two petitioners and Shriram were forwarded as part of the Maharashtra diving team.
Refusing the petitioners’ request, the judges said, “There would be participants from various states, and in their absence, it would be difficult for us to postpone the entire event.” In the ‘peculiar scenario’, they directed MSACC to make a representation to SFI or the Games Technical Conduct Committee (GTCC) “for an extension to forward names of swimmers from Maharashtra.
They said it is up to GTCC to take an appropriate decision on such a request. Since GTCC is not a party and the event is of national interest, it may not be appropriate to direct it to take a decision in a particular way, “but we expect them to adopt a sympathetic approach so that the swimmers from Maharashtra may not lose an opportunity to participate in the national event.”