The Punjab and Haryana high court has sought response from Punjab government on a plea from two netball players who alleged that they were not issued sports gradation certificates by the Punjab sports department.
The plea was from Aksh Sharma, a silver medalist in first senior national Fast Netball Championship (men and women) 2022-23 and from Banita Joshi, who won silver medal in 36th National Games organised by Indian Olympic Association in 2022 and bronze medal in 37th Senior National Netball Championship (men and woman) in September 2020. Both of them said their application for issuance of sports gradation certificates were not even accepted by the authorities.
In both the cases it has been argued that high court in February 2023 had held that denial of sports gradation certificate to a sportsperson in any discipline could not be the object of the sports gradation policy, which intended to recognise a sportspersons’ contribution.
It was submitted that the certificate was illegally denied on the grounds that the Netball Promotion Association (regd), under whose banner they played, was not recognised by the Punjab Olympic Association. The denial was on completely frivolous grounds based on a circular of December 24, 1997, issued by the Punjab director sports as per which the certificate issued by a sports association would be considered for gradation only if it was recognised by the Punjab Olympic Association. Even if it is admitted that the Netball Promotion Association was not recognised by the Punjab Olympic Association, even then certificate can’t be denied, the court was told. The response from the government has been sought by August 31.