Ramachandran was awarded RKPP award in the category of “Establishment and Management of sports academies of excellence”
Delhi High Court.
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday revoked the conferment of Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar (RKPP) 2011 to Indian Olympic Association President N. Ramachandran, saying it was finalised without “proper inquiry and application of mind.”
The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports had instituted the RKPP in 2009 for contribution to sports by individuals, corporates or institutions. Ramachandran was awarded RKPP award in the category of “Establishment and Management of sports academies of excellence.”
“This court therefore holds that the award of Puraskar to the fifth Respondent (Ramachan-dran) was finalised without a proper inquiry and proper application of mind, no attempt to verify the claims of achievement of the fifth Respondent were seriously made.
“The said decision, based on the Selection Committee’s recommendation, is therefore unsupportable in law,” a bench comprising justices Ravindra Bhat and R.K. Gauba said. It said the manner in which the whole selection took place, with respect to Ramachandran not only reveals a “casual and uncritical acceptance of whatever was and offered by the applicant, but also exemplifies what is wrong in such matters in Indian sports.”
“Sportspersons and where they function and the general public they entertain, are a world apart, it so seems from the world of sports administrators!” the bench said.
“This disconnect is deeply thrown up in sharp relief in the facts of the present case where regardless of the facility which was claimed to have been developed, the ultimate user, i.e. the squash players/ coach etc. had no voice in the selection of Puraskar or its awarding,” the bench added.
( Source : PTI )
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