Bhubaneswar: The ongoing tussle over alleged mismanagement in hockey governance has taken a turn after the Delhi High Court referred Hockey India (HI) president Dilip Tirkey’s challenge to the national federation’s election process to its internal grievance redressal mechanism.
In his petition to the High Court, Tirkey had challenged the validity of HI’s upcoming elections, seeking judicial intervention to halt or reform it. He claimed the polls were announced via HI Executive Board meetings that were convened illegally.
Those in the know revealed that Tirkey’s petition in court was the fall out of an ongoing administrative turf war between the former India captain and HI Secretary General Bhola Nath Singh, who had been independently convening executive board meetings and pushing forward with agendas.
On Thursday, however, the court disposed of Tirkey’s writ petition and directed that the grievances be examined through HI’s internal mechanism in line with its bye-laws.
Former Supreme Court judge Justice A K Sikri is set to head the grievance redressal committee that will look into the matter.
The development comes days after the issue snowballed into a political controversy in Odisha, with opposition BJD targeting the BJP government over what it described as “a decline in the state’s standing in Indian hockey” following HI’s proposal to downgrade Hockey Association of Odisha (HAO) from permanent to associate member status.
Welcoming the court order, Hockey Odisha described it as a moral victory for those seeking greater transparency and accountability in the administration of the sport.
