India News | SC Notes Objections to Clauses of AIFF Draft Constitution

New Delhi, Apr 2 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard the objections to the clauses of the All India Football Federation's (AIFF) draft constitution prepared by former apex court judge L Nageswara Rao.

Senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, amicus curiae in the case, referred to the national sports development code to submit before a bench of Justices P S Narasimnha and Joymalya Bagchi that only the secretary and the treasurer should be asked to observe the cooling off period.

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“We want that the constitution of the AIFF should be in alignment with national sports code and FIFA regulations,” he said.

The hearing remained inconclusive.

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The draft constitution, prepared by Justice Rao on top court's directions, proposed some radical changes, including a person holding the office for a maximum period of 12 years during their lifetime subject to serving a maximum of two successive terms of four years each.

While it said a cooling off period of four years had to be observed after eight years as an office bearer of the sports body, the draft said a person couldn't remain a member of the sports body after attaining 70 years of age.

Under the draft constitution, the executive committee of the AIFF would have 14 members, who would be under the age and tenure restrictions.

There will be one president, two vice presidents (a man and a woman), one treasurer and 10 other members, it added.

Of the 10 other members, five would be eminent players including two women.

The draft constitution also has provisions for the removal of the office bearers, including the president, through a no-confidence motion which the existing constitution of the AIFF does not have.

The top court had commenced the hearing on March 25 on the pleas related to the finalisation of AIFF's constitution.

Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who is also assisting the bench as an amicus curiae, started the submissions by referring to important clauses of the AIFF's Constitution and said some members and former players had objections to certain clauses.

The top court had earlier asked former apex court judge L Nageswara Rao to prepare the Constitution of the AIFF.

The bench subsequently took note of the draft constitution and asked Justice Rao to prepare a report after taking note of the objections of several stakeholders to the various constitutional schemes.

The bench was hearing a plea related to the finalisation of the constitution of the AIFF after taking note of "clause-by-clause" objections of the stakeholders from the realm of football in the country.

The bench took note of Sankaranarayanan's submissions that in certain respects, the suggestions to the draft constitution were accepted except those "in breach of either the judgements of this court or the national sports code".

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)