Delhi High Court Upholds Centre's Decision Recognising Indian Pickleball Association As National Sports Federation

The Delhi High Court has dismissed a petition filed by the All India Pickleball Association (AIPA) challenging the Union Government's decision to recognise the Indian Pickleball Association (IPA) as the National Sports Federation (NSF) for the sport in the country.

Justice Sachin Datta held that it cannot be said that grant of recognition to IPA was ex-facie arbitrary or suffered from manifest unreasonableness.

AIPA, which has been in existence since 2008, had applied for recognition as the NSF for pickleball in October, 2024. However, the Union Sports Ministry, in April last year, granted recognition to IPA.

While doing so, the Central Government granted relaxations to IPA from certain provisions of the Sports Code, including the requirement of three years' existence and affiliation of 50% district-level units.

Aggrieved by the said decision, AIPA filed the plea alleging arbitrariness, mala fides and violation of the Sports Code, contending that IPA was a newly formed body which did not satisfy the basic eligibility criteria for recognition.

Rejecting the petition, Justice Datta said that the Sports Code is a consolidated set of executive instructions and is policy-driven and non-statutory in nature. The Court observed that the Code cannot be applied mechanically or rigidly, particularly to nascent and emerging sports like pickleball.

“Grant of the exemption/s was a policy decision of the respondent no.1/Ministry, after due consideration of the emerging and nascent nature of the sport as well as the need and desire for promoting and developing the sport of pickleball in the country,” the Court said.

It held that it is not within the province of the Court to second guess or sit in appeal over the comparative merits or de-merits of IPA vis-à- vis AIPA or any other association functioning in the sport of pickleball in the country.

Finding no legal infirmity in the impugned order, the Court dismissed the petition, while clarifying that AIPA will be free to make representations before the Union Ministry at the stage of annual renewal of recognition.

Counsel for Petitioner: Mr. Dayan Krishnan, Sr. Advocate along with Mr. Gautam Narayan, Mr. Hemant Phalpher, Mr. R. A. Iyer, Ms. Disha Joshi and Mr. Sukrit Seth, Advocates

Counsel for Respondents: Mr. Jayant Mehta, Sr. Advocate along with Ms. Arunima Dwivedi, CGSC, Ms. Pinky Pawar, Mr. Sainyam Bhardwaj, Advocates for UOI; Mr. Rajshekhar Rao, Sr. Advocate along with Mr. Ashish Verma, Mr. Saksham Thareja, Mr. Nikhil Thakur and Mr. Kartikey Bhargava, Advocates for R-2; Mr. D. N. Goburdhan, Sr. Advocate along with Mr. Kunal Kohli, Ms. Shreyha Kohli, Advocates for proposed Respondent no.3

Title: ALL INDIA PICKLEBALL ASSOCIATION v. UNION OF INDIA & ANR

Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Del) 138

Click here to read order