The Delhi High Court on Friday suspended Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI), ordered an enquiry into its functioning and appointed an administrator to run the sport.
The decision came after a court-appointed three-member committee, under former judge of the Supreme Court Justice Vikramjit Sen, submitted its report over Manika Batra’s allegations that national coach Soumyadeep Roy had asked her to tank a match against his trainee Sutirtha Mukherjee during the Tokyo Olympic qualifiers in Doha. The committee found that Batra had reported the matter to a senior TTFI official, and as such the TTFI executive committee was aware of the incident.
“The report reveals a sorry state of affairs. The court is appalled to note some of the observations regarding the manner in which the Respondent No. 1 (TTFI) and 3 (national coach) have been functioning. Petitioner (Manika Batra) has been repeatedly pointing out issues to the TTFI. However, instead of working on the issues and promoting the players, it has been trying to dictate its own terms to players,” judge Rekha Palli observed.
“In case an enquiry is not directed into affairs of the TTFI and an administrator is not appointed to run the federation by suspending the executive body, the court will be failing in its duties towards the sportsperson and the general public,” she said.
The court also criticised TTFI for appointing Roy as national coach as he continues to run his personal academy and said in doing that the federation has “shown conflict of interest.”
“Hence no other option but to appoint an administrator to discharge the functions of the TTFI till an enquiry as prayed for is concluded,” said Palli.
{{/usCountry}}“Hence no other option but to appoint an administrator to discharge the functions of the TTFI till an enquiry as prayed for is concluded,” said Palli.
{{/usCountry}}The court said the three-member committee has observed that TTFI has “only been safeguarding the interest of its officials.”
Commonwealth Games gold medallist Batra had refused to take Roy’s help during Tokyo Olympics following which TTFI slapped her with a showcause notice. The matter blew up after Batra accused Roy of asking her to lose against Mukherjee. TTFI subsequently had dropped her from the squad for the Asian Table Tennis Championships for not attending national camp. She was able to participate after a court order.
TTFI’s suspension comes as a blow in a year with two major competitions: Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games. The players will also be competing in a series of national and international events and the senior national championship is also scheduled in Shillong from March 20.
Keeping in mind the upcoming tournaments, the court said TTFI should cooperate fully with the administrator. The administrator has not yet been named.