Internet Desk: The Delhi High court on Thursday stayed the elections of All India Football Federation (AIFF) executive committee scheduled on 21st December. The stay is till January 20 next year, which is the date of the next hearing.
The court ordered the stay in a PIL filed by Rahul Mehra urging that that elections in various national sport federations be conducted as per Model Election Guidelines laid down in the Sports Code of India.
“The court has stayed the elections till the next date of hearing which is on Jan 20 and have asked the AIFF to come before the court and place their stand on the elections,” Mehra told Herald.
Earlier, Goa Football Association President Elvis Gomes said, “Whatever we have alleged against AIFF earlier for violating the sports code has been proved to be correct. And thus, the Delhi HC has stayed the AIFF polls till further notice.”
The AIFF had already completed the election process with all 17 members, including the president and treasurer being elected unopposed, according to a letter by general secretary Kushal Das to all state associations. According to Mehra, the Sports Code makes it clear that each candidate must be nominated by one member association and seconded by another member but in the AIFF electoral process, each candidate has to be nominated by five member associations.
“This is an undemocratic clause where you are ousting a person even before he has filed his nomination,” said Mehra. “The AIFF has turned this into a farcical and undemocratic election,” said Mehra.
The already approved AIFF panel stands as follows:
AIFF executive committee for 2016-2020
President: Praful Patel (Maharashtra).
Vice-presidents: Subhash Chopra (Delhi), Subrata Dutta (Bengal), Manvendra Singh (Rajasthan), KMI Mather (Kerala), Larsing Ming (Meghalaya).
Treasurer: ZA Thakur (Jammu & Kashmir)
Members: Deepak Kumar (Punjab), Deepak Sharma (Himachal Pradesh), Ghulam Rabbani (Jharkhand), Sanjay Behera (Odisha), AR Dev (Madhya Pradesh), Gulab Chauhan (Gujarat), AR Khaleel (Karnataka), Jessiah Villavarayar (Tamil Nadu), Lalninghinglova Hmar (Mizoram) HN Brahma (Assam).