Sports quota in Telangana state needs a rethinking

Hyderabad: Sports quotas in professional courses have been the subject of litigation for some time, the charge being malpractice in selections and also discrimination against some candidates ever since its inception.

The government of undivided Andhra Pradesh had in 1993 introduced a sports quota for admissions in medical, engineering and agriculture undergraduate courses. Initially the quota was for 24 sports, but year after year the number of sports increased to reach nearly 50. When the new state of Telangana was formed in 2014, its government too adopted the quota system.

Since 2008, the Hyderabad High Court has been entertaining cases of irregularities in the admission process for the sports quota.

When a case with regard to the sports quota had come before the bench headed by Justice V. Ramasubramanian in 2016, the bench had observed: “It is sad to note that except video games, all other games that one could conceive of, have been brought within the sports quota, to enable persons who cannot excel in academic studies to gain admission to undergraduate medical courses through the back door. The result is that the field of sports as well as the field of professional education takes a beating.”

It also observed that “Ultimately, persons who gain admission to medical courses lose their flavour for sports if they really had some. Persons who have interest in academics are kept out by less meritorious, due to such quotas not borne out of the constitutional scheme.  Therefore, it is high time that there is a rethinking on such quotas, which have no constitutional basis.”

The bench felt that reservation for such quotas neither helps the students to become great sports persons nor to become great professionals in other fields.

The High Court  while staying the sports quota admissions for the academic year 2018-19 wondered at the inclusion of games such as modern pentathlon, lawn bowls, wushu and sepak takraw, which are not played in this part of the country.

The bench found that these obscure games which were included in the government order will pave the way for unscrupulous persons to take such games at the national level, where there will be no competition, and such persons will get admission easily through this short cut.

Ms B. Rachna Reddy, an advocate who appeared for the petitioners, challenging illegalities in the sports quota, said that the government has notified 48 sports disciplines in the GO, some of which are not popular with or familiar to the people or students of Telangana state and for which there is no training or coaching available in the state, as for example beach volleyball. She said that the authorities cleverly deleted certain sports such as roller skating, fencing and archery, all of which are national sports which have universal appeal and where avenues for training are available. 

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