New Delhi:
Ecstatic after the Delhi High Court quashed Centre's order to derecognise the Indian Hockey Federation, IHF chief KPS Gill said the Hockey India should pack its bags and go back home.
Speaking to NDTV after the Court's ruling, Gill said: "Hockey India should pack its bags and go home."
"Elections to hockey federation will take place in two-three months," Gill said. He also added: "Not sure if I will take part in the fresh elections." (
Read:Personal ambitions led to IHF disbandment, says Gill)
Gill, who had nearly 15 years at the helm of IHF before the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) disbanded the federation and replaced it with Hockey India, said the IHF has been working as if it had not been disbanded.
The IOA had dissolved the IHF in April 2008 after the Indian Hockey Team failed to qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games for the first time. The decision was influenced by the sting operation that had caught IHF secretary K Jothikumaran accepting bribe on camera to select a player.
The Delhi High Court on Friday revived the IHF, paving the way for reinstatement of former cop KPS Gill as the head of the sporting body
The Court rejected the plea of Centre that revival of IHF would result in a "chaotic" situation as Hockey India had already been formed and Commonwealth Games is round the corner.
"It would be unfair to the Federation, which has succeeded in showing that both the orders of disaffiliation and consequent de-recognition are wholly illegal, to be denied relief for over two years on the ground that such order might jeopardise India's participation in a sporting event," Justice S Muralidhar said.
"It is not as if IHF's term is about to expire or that chaos would result with its revival. The Commonwealth Games are still a few months away. It will be for the MYAS (Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports) to decide how best to go about the matter," the court said.
The court set aside the Centre's decision to de-recognise IHF and the IOA's disaffiliation of the federation, noting that proper procedure was not followed by them to take such punitive action and sporting body was not given chance to refute allegations levelled against it.
"The decision dated 28th April 2008 of the IOA placing the IHF under suspension and the decision dated 10th May 2009 of the IOA disaffiliating the IHF are hereby quashed.
"The decision dated 12th May 2008 passed by the Ministry temporarily withdrawing the recognition of the IHF and the subsequent order dated 10th/11th August 2009 passed by the Ministry de-recognising the IHF are also hereby quashed," the court said.
The Court passed the order on a petition filed by the Federation through its chief Gill challenging the decision of Centre and IOA to disband it.
Justice Muralidhar pointed out that government and IOA must give show cause notice to sporting bodies before taking punitive action against them and it was not followed in case of IHF.
"Any disaffiliation of an NSF has to be mandatorily preceded by a show cause notice to the NSF sought to be disaffiliated. Admittedly, no such show cause notice was ever issued to the IHF prior to its suspension," the court said.
"While there may be justification in insisting that IHF should take corrective action with regard to the allegations concerning the conduct of one of its office bearers, that cannot be the reason for placing the IHF itself under suspension," the court said.
The Court pulled up the Centre for not explaining the basis on which Hockey India was recognised and for being indifferent to the functioning of IHF.
"This Court finds that the MYAS has been largely indifferent to what has been happening with the IHF and has left the entire control to be taken over by the IOA," the court said adding "it must be pointed out that despite the order of this Court, the MYAS has not explained on what basis it granted recognition to Hockey India".
The Gill-led IHF was disbanded in April 2008 after Jothikumaran was caught on camera accepting bribe to select a player.
The IOA then replaced IHF with a five-member ad hoc committee and subsequently set up Hockey India, which is struggling to conduct its election due to legal hurdles and affiliation tangles.
Hockey India in fact missed the first deadline set by International Hockey Federation (FIH) and they now have to conduct their election by the end of this month.
Gill also claimed IHF had FIH's support and it was only because of some individuals' petty interest that led to the federation's disbandment.
"The International Hockey Federation (FIH) was never against us. Personal ambition of one or two people created the situation," Gill said.
(With PTI inputs)