Commonwealth Games 2022 : Karnataka HC Dismisses Table Tennis Player Archana Kamat's Plea Challenging Her Exclusion

The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition filed by Table Tennis Player Archana Kamath, questioning the decision of the Table Tennis Federation in not selecting her in the team which would represent India in the upcoming CommonWealth Games, 2022, to be held in England. A division bench of Justice P S Dinesh Kumar and Justice C M Poonacha said, "The Committee of Administrators (CoA) is chaired by a Former Chief Justice and two other eminent persons. It is not in dispute that it took charge in February and based on the opinion of parents the committee has decided to bring in the new selection process in October 2022. Based on the existing policy the selection has been made. These are matters within the domain of the expert committee and in this case in the domain of the Committee of Administrators. The Delhi high court has also dismissed a writ petition filed by R8 wherein the very selection was challenged. In our view the petition does not merit consideration and accordingly it is dismissed." Senior Advocate Uday Holla appearing for the petitioner had argued that the Impugned Order made by Respondent No. 2 in excluding the Petitioner's name from the Women's Table Tennis Team to represent India in the Commonwealth Games, Birmingham, 2022 in its meeting dated 06.06.2022, is arbitrary and grossly contradictory to its functions and objectives. Further he submitted that the selection committee failed to notice that the selection is for Commonwealth games and the selection has been done considering performance in domestic tournaments which is untenable. Senior Advocate Vikram Huilgol appearing for the Federation submitted that the Committee of Administrators as directed to be appointed by the Delhi High Court, took charge in February 2022. There were representations received from parents of the Table Tennis players not to change the method of selection for the ensuing Commonwealth games. Accordingly the same was deferred to October 2022. Further he said, "It is true that CoA had floated the name of petitioner. However, later it was referred to the Director General of Sport Authority of India. The Sports authority did not make any selection as it was not involved in any selection process. The matter was referred to two selectors." He added, "The Petitioners performance in senior nationals tournament held at Shillong was not good. Therefore the petitioner's name has not been considered. The respondents no 4 to 8, have higher grades in their earlier matches and tournaments they have played. R6 has obtained 33 grades and the petitioner's grade is 37 in domestic tournaments." As per the petition, Kamath holds World Rank No. 8, individually, in the Women Doubles Category being the highest ranked Indian player in the said category. She is world ranked No. 66 in Women Singles and is the second highest world ranked Indian in Women Singles. The Petitioner has been selected as part of the TOPS (Target Olympics Podium Scheme) Core group as a potential medal prospect in the Paris Olympics to be held in 2024. The plea said the Federation was earlier governed by an elected body namely, the Executive Committee which was entrusted with the selection and ranking of players for various table tennis tournaments for all age groups. In the year 2021, the functioning of the said Executive Committee was called in question, when Respondent No. 6 (Manika Batra) who had represented India in various tournaments internationally filed a Petition before the High Court of Delhi alleging several activities of the Executive Committee to be against the interest of the players. Acting on Batra's petition, the High Court appointed a Committee of Administrators vide its order dated 11.02.2022 to discharge the functions of Respondent No. 2. The Committee of Administrators comprised three members namely, Justice Gita Mittal (Rtd.), Former Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court as Chairperson along with Mr. Chethan Mittal, Senior Advocate, and Mr. S. D. Mudgil, a renowned athlete as Members. On April 6, the Federation issued a new draft criterion for selection of members of all players in the Indian Table Tennis teams. It had proposed a modified ranking system allocating points to maintain a balance between international and domestic rankings for team selections. The Federation called upon stakeholders to provide their comments on the new selection and ranking criteria on or before 20.04.2022 and further, notified hearings to hear the stakeholders who had provided their comments on the new draft on selection and ranking criteria on 29.04.2022 and 01.05.2022. In a meeting held on May 12 by the Federation, it was discussed that a new selection criteria be included. The salient feature of the new selection criteria included consideration for direct selection if the players had secured a World Rank of 8 or below in the Senior Doubles Category ...

Commonwealth Games 2022 : Karnataka HC Dismisses Table Tennis Player Archana Kamat's Plea Challenging Her Exclusion

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