HC stays elections of TN Amateur Kabaddi Association

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court had stayed the election for the various posts, including the president and secretary of Tamil Nadu Amateur Kabaddi Association citing that the election notification was not in tune with the provisions of the National Sports Development Code 2011 (NSDC).

“The election notification released by the State Kabaddi Association is not in accordance with the National Sports Development Code 2011. As per the rules, a notification should be kept in the public domain, including in newspapers. As such provisions were not followed, there shall be a stay in the notification issued on April 29 for conducting the elections, ” Justice GR Swaminathan observed on hearing a petition filed by M Thiruvel Azhagan, a Chennai based Kabaddi player.

The petitioner sought a direction from the court to quash an election notification dated April 29 issued by the TN State Kabaddi Association to conduct elections for the posts of State president and Secretary for the association.

The petitioner submitted that the TN amateur kabaddi association has 38 district kabaddi association units and as per the NSDC 2012, the district presidents and secretaries should vote for electing the State level president and secretary for the association.

“Elections to elect the district presidents and secretaries were conducted only for 25 districts. At this juncture, a notification has been issued for conducting the election for the posts of State president and secretary which is against the rules, ” the petitioner submitted.

Advocate R Murali appearing for the petitioner further submitted that there was another violation found in issuing the election notification. “According to the NSDC rules, the notification should be released 21 days prior to the date of the election. However, the State association had released the election notification on April 29 declaring that election will be conducted on May 22,” the petitioner's counsel noted.

On recoding the submissions, the judge granted an injunction restraining the respondents from conducting the elections. The matter has been posted to June 13.