Volleyball Federation of India can select and send teams: Madras HC

Setting aside a single judge order allowing Tamil Nadu State Volleyball Association TNSVA to select and send mens and womens teams to the national games, a division bench comprising justices G R Swaminathan and N Mala said the VFI is the apex body in the country representing this game.TNSVA is affiliated to VFI and is also recognised by Tamil Nadu State Olympic Association and Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu.

The Madras High Court on Friday held that the Volleyball Federation of India (VFI) can select and send teams from the States to the ongoing national games in Gujarat while the State association cannot independently nominate the teams. Setting aside a single judge order allowing Tamil Nadu State Volleyball Association (TNSVA) to select and send men's and women's teams to the national games, a division bench comprising justices G R Swaminathan and N Mala said the VFI is the apex body in the country representing this game.

TNSVA is affiliated to VFI and is also recognised by Tamil Nadu State Olympic Association and Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu. The events are being organised by the Indian Olympic Association. It has constituted Games Technical Conduct Committee (GTCC). Indian Olympic Association had made it clear that it would deal only through VFI and this was made clear on August 31, by the Tamil Nadu State Olympic Association in a letter addressed to TNSVA.

''TNSVA was called upon to contact the National Federations as the entries are given directly to the respective federations by their affiliates. In other words, TNSVA will not have an independent standing to nominate or send its teams for participation in the national games,'' the bench observed.

Noting that VFI is empowered to step in in matters concerning preparation of teams for national championship, the bench said it found considerable merit in the contention of the counsel for VFI that the impugned communication dated August 6, 2022 is within the competence of VFI. Though TNSVA filed the writ petition on August 22, the effective hearing of the interim applications was taken up only on September 30. ''By then much water had flown under the bridge. The accreditation process was over on September 8. The team entries got closed on August 31. TNSVA conducted selection trials only from September 10-14. It is obvious from the sequence of events that the matters had become infructuous by September 30,'' the bench said.

The court was impelled to interfere after the counsel made available the email sent by the GTCC Secretariat, 36th national games stating that in view of the interim orders passed by the Madras High Court, no volleyball players / teams representing Tamil Nadu will be participating in the 36th National Games. ''If we do not interfere in this writ appeal, there will be no representation for Tamil Nadu in the volleyball event. Already, in the beach volleyball event there has been a walkover. The same should not befall volleyball event also,'' the bench said setting aside the single judge order and allowing the writ of VFI.

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