After taking note of objections to a draught document raised by various stakeholders, including FIFA, the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked former Supreme Court judge L Nageswara Rao to prepare a thorough report on finalising the All India Football Federation's (AIFF) constitution by July 31 for running sports in the nation.
The top court ordered that the Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL), a Reliance company that runs the country's top-tier football competition, the Indian Super competition, must cover the costs the Justice Rao panel would expend in approving the structure of the AIFF.
Justice Rao, who had previously finalised the constitution of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on the top court's orders, can address the numerous objections to the draught constitution raised by various stakeholders, according to a bench consisting of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice J B Pardiwala.
The bench believed that, in the normal course of events, it would have started the process of drafting the draught constitution of the AIFF by consulting with all the parties.
“However, we believe that delaying the aforementioned activity (of finishing the constitution) at this time would be acceptable. Many of the concerns voiced by the interested parties extend beyond legal concerns to include policy concerns as well, such as the appropriate procedures for managing football in the nation, the statement said.
It believed that Justice Rao would be the most qualified person for the job since he had carried out a similar assignment as per the highest court's directives on the IOA.
“It would be reasonable to assign the erudite former judge of this court the responsibility of finishing the constitution. The procedures that took place in respect to the IOA before the learned judge would show a significant amount of overlap with many of the arguments that have been expressed here.
In light of the situation, it urged Justice L. N. Rao, a former judge of this court, to take on the task of reviewing the draught constitution put forth by the Committee of Administrators (CoA) (of AIFF), which was recently advanced by senior attorney Gopal Sankaranarayanan.
The panel requested the former judge to consult with all parties over the draught constitution before compiling the final report, including AIFF, state football associations, FIFA, and FSDL.
“The exercise of considering the draught constitution and submitting a comprehensive report, bearing in mind the objections which have been addressed by all the stakeholders, will be effectively carried out by July 31, 2023,” it said.
The panel was considering a request to finalise the AIFF's constitution while taking notice of “clause-by-clause” concerns from different national football stakeholders.
The bench took notice of amicus curiae Sankaranarayanan's arguments that, with the exception of those that were “in violation of either the judgements of this court or the national sports code,” the amendments to the draught constitution had generally been adopted.
The bench stated, “Similarly, there are other objections in the submissions will have a bearing on the role of athletes who form the backbone of the sport,” and it went on to say that there have been submissions arguing that it is also essential to protect the “independence and autonomy of AIFF” from undue interference from outside influences.
The court ordered the FSDIL to make the first payment of Rs 25 lakh to the Justice Rao panel within two weeks of today.
Additionally, it stated that the panel could petition the Supreme Court as an amicus curiae if it desired any kind of procedural instructions.
The top court had earlier said that it will examine a number of petitions on May 2 concerning matters pertaining to the AIFF, including objections made to several elements of its draught constitution.
In addition, the top court ordered that the three-person administrative committee it had created in May of last year to oversee the AIFF's operations be disbanded.
It has altered its prior directives to make it easier for FIFA to revoke the ban it had placed on the AIFF and for India to host the Under-17 Women's World Cup in 2022.
On May 18 of last year, the court constituted the panel led by Justice (retired) Anil R Dave and dismissed the management committee led by NCP leader Praful Patel, which had been in place for more than 2.5 years.
Former chief election commissioner S. Y. Qureshi and former Indian football team captain Bhaskar Ganguly were both on the committee led by Dave.
This, however, prevented the Under-17 Women's World Cup from taking place in 2022 since there was no elected AIFF board in charge.
FIFA had banned India on August 16 of last year because of “undue influence from third parties,” and it had said that the event “cannot currently be held in India as planned.” However, the nation went on to host the FIFA event last October 11–30.
