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TMI Blog2016 (3) TMI 1243X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... aration of agenda, whereas the Competition Director had handed over his letter dated 03.02.2015 to the NFI and the agenda for the Annual General Meeting was prepared on 08.03.2015, almost after a month, therefore, there was no reason for the respondents to have excluded the agenda item pertaining to removal of the petitioner from the membership of the NFI so that the General Council could have deliberated upon it before voting. The respondents have also violated the principle of natural justice as no opportunity of hearing much-less show cause notice was given before its removal from the membership. Thus, the action of removal of the petitioner from membership of the NFI and appointment of the ad-hoc committee is totally illegal and hence, the fifth petition is also allowed, as prayed for. - CWP No.12808 of 2013 - - - Dated:- 15-3-2016 - Hon'ble Mr. Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain Present: Mr. A.S.Narang, Advocate, for the petitioners. Mr. Agam Jund Mullanpur, Advocate, Mr. B.S.Samer, Advocate, Mr. B.S.Rathee, Advocate, Mr. S.S.Samai, Advocate. Mr. Ashok Jindal, Advocate, Mr. B.S.Jaswal, Advocates, Ms. Jaideep Kaur, Advocate, Mr. Karminder Singh, Advocate, for the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... , who had already resigned on 07.04.2013, therefore, the action against the NAC by the NFI was uncalled for. However, on 19.05.2013, the NFI passed the order of suspension of the NAC. The NAC has, thus, challenged the order of its suspension dated 19.05.2013 in the first petition, in which notice was issued on 31.05.2013 and operation of the suspension order dated 19.05.2013 was stayed. After notice, separate replies have been filed by respondent No.1 and respondents Nos.2 and 3. In the reply filed by respondent No.1, it is averred that MYAS recognize only one federation for each sport discipline at the national level. The recognized National Sports Federation (NSF), in turn, is responsible for the promotion and development of the sport. The NSF has to discharge the responsibility in accordance with the principles laid down in the Olympic Charter, Charter of Indian Olympic Association (IOA) or the relevant International Federation. The MYAS supplements the efforts of the NSFs by providing financial assistance for participation in international events abroad, conducting national/international tournaments and training/coaching of national teams under Indian and Foreign Co ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... i.e. on 04.08.2013, and the Executive Committee, in the same meeting, directed the Disciplinary Committee to further investigate the matter by issuing notice to the NAC. The Disciplinary Committee placed its report dated 02.10.2013 to the President of the NFI and the NFI, in its meeting held on the same day i.e. 02.10.2013, agreed with the Disciplinary Committee that the NAC did not cooperate with the Disciplinary Committee and did not submit any record asked by it during enquiry and even did not reply to the show cause notice dated 17.09.2013 issued to the NAC and as per Article 13 of the Constitution of the NFI, amended on 30.03.2013, the Executive Committee of the NFI unanimously decided to suspend the affiliation of the NAC and to file an FIR against Gurbir Singh Sandhu, President, R. Sharan, General Secretary, Dr. GP Pal, Joint Secretary and members of the Executive Committee and the Selection Committee of the NAC and the players involved in the abovesaid offences. The impugned order, in the second petition, has been passed during the pendency of the first petition when respondent No.3 issued a fresh show cause notice dated 09.08.2013, alleging that one person, namely, Ratind ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the petitioners, the NFI uploaded on its website two amended versions of the Constitution causing the following amendments:- i) Article 2 pertaining to the registered office and jurisdiction. ii) In Article 3, sub clause 9(a) has been inserted. iii) Article 4 has been amended. iv) Clause L of Article 4 which provides the term of office bearers to be four years and creates restrictions on further re-election has been amended. Valid version at page 21, illegal amendment at page 22. The said amendment is also contrary to the Government guidelines. v) Article 5 pertaining to membership (page 23). Sub clause 5 of Article 5 has been completely amended and the President and the Secretary General have been given the power to make golden members with voting rights. This is again contrary to the Government guidelines. vi) Article 5A has been inserted, restricting the right to contest elections to the posts of President, Secretary and Treasury (page 25). Article 8 has also been amended wherein it has been stated that the President, Secretary General and Treasury shall be elected from only amongst the Executive Committee members. vii) Article 12 pertaining to the right to ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ciplines, including the game of netball. The petitioner selected a team for the game of netball and forwarded the list to the Chandigarh Olympic Association, who further forwarded it to the IOA. The IOA prepared the accreditation cards in advance as it was not possible to prepare those cards on the last day as thousands of players arrive at the game venue. One player, namely, Pulkit Sood did not join the contingent by rail and stated that he would arrive by air later on. Hence, his name was retained in the list and his accreditation card was also prepared by the IOA. On 02.02.2015, the NAC team participated in two matches without Pulkit Sood. On finding that one player was missing, the coach himself sent a request for cancellation of the accreditation card on 02.02.2015 itself but on 04.02.2015, respondent No.3 roughed up the coach of the NAC (Amit Kumar) so much that he had to go to the hospital and get himself medically examined. On the same day, the FIR was registered against office bearers and players of the NAC and in February, 2015 itself, on a plain piece of paper, the Competition Director, namely, Lalit Jeewani, disqualified the NAC team and disaffiliated the NAC from the m ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... bers of the committee. It may delegate authority to the president to nominate other members of Committee. The Presidents or in his absence a senior vice president or one of the vice President nominated by the president or one elected by the house, shall preside over the meeting as chairman before proceeding to the business. The chairman shall have a casting vote in the event of a tie. II. The council shall meet at the time of Nationals at the venue to be fixed by the committee or the Secretary General with the consultation of the president. The Secretary General shall give 21 days notice to all the members of the council and shall circulate along with the notice a copy of the agenda of the meeting. The 21 days notice shall mean 21 days from the date of posting. III. One third of the members on the up-to-date list and entitled to vote shall constitute the quorum. To start the proceedings of the council, if the quorum is not formed within half an hour of the appointed time, the meeting shall be adjourned and it shall subsequently meet at the same venue and date after half-an-hour. IV. The business of the council shall be to elect committee and all the executive powers shall ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tion from the president. He/she shall in no case draw money exceeding ₹ 5000/- unless the President has sanctioned the amount already drawn in anticipation of the President sanction. He shall carry on all correspondence of the Federation and give effect to all the resolutions of the Committee or the Council as the Executive Officer. He/she shall issue notices of meetings and record minutes of the same and shall be responsible for the maintenance of the other records and registers as well as the custody of all papers of the Federation and for carrying out other duties that may be entrusted to him by the Federation from time to time. He/she shall issue show cause notices and suspension orders for violation of rules of the Federation and all such action must be confirmed by the Committee or the council at its next meeting. The accounts of Federation shall be operated by the President, Secretary General and treasurer of the Federation. Article 13 is about the removal, which reads as under:- Removal A member unit whose conduct is deemed to be inimical or detrimental to the welfare of the Federation may be removed from membership by the affirmative vote of two-third o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... stitution and Bye-Laws . Any amendment to the Constitution and Bye-Laws of the Federation may be proposed by a member Association with full membership or by the Executive Committee. Amendment may be made to the Constitution at any meeting of the Council by a two third majority of those present and entitled to vote. Bye-Laws may be amended by a simple majority decision. Notice of proposed amendments must be made, in writing, to the Honorary Secretary General of the Federation at least one year prior to the date of the Council Meeting. At least nine months prior to the date of the meeting the Honorary Secretary General shall circulate to all Member Associations any proposed amendments to the Constitution or Bye- Laws. According to the petitioner, the impugned order dated 19.05.2013 in the first petition is an order of suspension, suspending the petitioner, while proceedings for removal under Article 13 were undertaken. According to the impugned order, on the submission of the report by the Disciplinary Committee, the Executive Committee of the NFI decided in its meeting on 14.05.2013 to suspend the membership of the petitioner with immediate effect and appoint Ad-hoc Exe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f the NFI itself, did not submit the Utilization Certificate of the amount of `25,95,427/- taken from the MYSA despite repeated reminders. Actually, this allegation has nothing to do with the NAC which is a State unit and the aforesaid amount sanctioned by the MYSA to the NFI was for the training of its team at Sydney for the CWG- 2010. The Union of India has though admitted in its reply that except for `78,500/-, un-spent amount plus interest thereon, which has not been deposited by Gurbir Singh Sandhu with the Government, the other amount has been spent but he had not submitted the original vouchers/receipts. In this regard, Gurbir Singh Sandhu had taken the stand that income and expenditure account of the training of Netball team, trained in Sydney during February-March, 2010 has been accounted for through Chartered Accountant Manjani Associations. Be that as it may, the question which still arises is as to whether the Executive Committee of the NFI can suspend the NAC and appoint its Ad-hoc Executive Committee? There is no power shown to the Court flowing from the Constitution and the Bye-laws of the NFI of putting the Executive Committee of a member unit under suspension ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ordered for registration of the FIR against its office bearers. The Executive Committee also decided the formation of an Adhoc Executive Committee of the NAC. Counsel for the petitioner has submitted that the impugned action has been taken on the basis of an amendment of Article 13, which empowers the Executive Committee to place a member unit under suspension, but the said amendment has not been carried out according to the procedure provided under Article 17 of the Constitution of the NFI which has been separately challenged in the third petition. It is also submitted that the respondents have also violated the principle of natural justice because the relevant documents, which form basis of the impugned action against the petitioner, were not supplied to the petitioner before taking such action and it also suffers from personal bias because respondent No.3 had chaired the Disciplinary Committee meeting and also participated in the meeting of the Executive Committee. There was no power with the respondents to appoint the Ad-hoc Executive Committee of the NAC. On merits, it is submitted that the issue of impersonation is personal in nature to the coach and players involved an ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hat the notice of the proposed amendment must be made, in writing, to the Honorary Secretary General of the Federation at least one year prior to the date of the Council Meeting and the Honorary Secretary General shall circulate to all member associations any proposed amendments to the Constitution or Bye-Laws nine months prior to the date of its meeting. In view of the categorical provisions made for amendment in the Constitution and in the absence of any evidence brought on record by the respondents that any notice was given for the proposed amendment, in writing, to the Honorary Secretary General of the Federation at least one year prior to the date of the Council meeting and that any such notice was given by the Honorary Secretary General to all Member Associations of any proposed amendments to the Constitution or Bye-Laws, it would not be difficult for this Court to hold that the amendment has been brought by the respondents totally in violation of the provisions of Article 17 of the Constitution of the NFI. Hence, the third petition is hereby allowed and it is held that the amendment made by the respondents in the Constitution and the Bye- Laws, in violation of Article ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... emoval of the NAC in case the respondents wanted the General Council to vote on it because the important issue like removal of a member unit could not have been taken up under the miscellaneous head. It is further submitted that the respondents did not circulate the minutes and also did not given a copy of the same, rather it is argued that the respondents have not even attached the minutes with their reply. It is further submitted that on 05.10.2015, the matter was taken up and heard and counsel for the NFI took time to address further arguments. This Court adjourned the matter to 06.10.2015 and on that day, the counsel for the NFI did not turn up and the matter was adjourned to 12.10.2015 and for the first time on 20.10.2015, counsel for the NFI produced the alleged minutes of the Annual General Meeting. It is, thus, submitted that the said minutes have been fabricated after seeking adjournment only to counter the argument raised by the petitioner about the authority of the Competition Director to pass the order of removal. It is also submitted that the respondents have violated the principle of natural justice as no show cause notice was served upon it nor any opportunity of bei ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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