Delhi HC Asks Paralympic Committee to take instructions on Shooter Naresh Sharma’s plea

Last Updated on July 23, 2021 by Administrator

Naresh Kumar Sharma, Five times Paralympian and an Arjun Award holder knocked Delhi High Court’s door over the issue of the non-inclusion of his name on the list for the upcoming Tokyo Paralympics. The Shooter’s name was not listed despite fulfilling all the required eligibility criteria laid down by STC “Sports Technical Committee,” in consonance with the criteria as set by WSPS “World Shooting Para Sports.”

The petition filed by Naresh Kumar, through his counsel Advocate Amit Kumar Sharma and Satyam Rajput alleged that the selection Committee of PCI has deliberately and arbitrarily ignored the petitioner’s participation in Tokyo Paralympics in the R7 event, even though h fulfilled all the required criteria for the same.

Further, the plea stated that the Selection Committee has violated the National Sports Development Code of India, 2011, by selecting Deepak for not only for the R7 event which going to take place in Tokyo Olympics also in R3, and R6 events, even though Deepak has merely fulfilling eligibility criteria laid down by WSPS and STC.

Although, the Paralympic Committee of India on Wednesday, vehemently denied all the allegations made by Naresh Kumar Sharma, and stated that the rules and criteria which were uploaded in 2019 were amended in 2020 after the postponement from 2020 to 2021.

While hearing the petitioner’s plea, the Single Bench of Justice RekhaPalli, stated that “the scope of the court’s interference in the matter s like the instant domain is limited as it is a domain of experts.”

However, the counsel, from the petitioner’s side argued that “where the discretionary power of committee has been exercised arbitrarily, in such issue the court may grant indulgence.”

Thus, the court with the bench of Justice RekhaPalli fixed the case hearing for 23rd July 2021 and further allowed the petitioner to implead athlete Deepak as Respondent Party.

The Paralympics are set to start on August 26, 2021.