Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Monday pulled up the Athletic Federation of India for including athlete Sudha Singh in the Indian team for the IAAF world championships even after the cutoff date to submit the entry list. It was brought to the court’s attention that the deadline for submitting the participation list of athletes for each country was already over as the IAAF had set a cut-off date of July 24. An open letter released by AFI president Adille J Sumariwalla on July 26 made it clear that Sudha Singh was excluded from the team as she did not participate in the Inter State championship held in Guntur following AAC 2017.
It was mandatory for the athlete to compete and get at least close to qualification marks for being considered for selection. However, when the IAAF published the list, Sudha’s name was included, it was argued. The court issued the order on a petition filed by P U Chitra seeking to initiate contempt of court proceedings against Secretary CK Valson, Selection Committee chairman GS Randhawa and President Adille J Sumariwalla for not complying with the High Court order. The court had directed the AFI to ensure participation of Chitra in the event. The petition stated that AFI had written a simple letter to the IAAF pointing out that the Kerala high court has passed an interim order.
There was no request seeking to include her in the Indian Team. The secretary and selection committee chairman, who is now in London, have to convey to the IAAF that they were responsible for the non- inclusion of Chitra, despite being qualified. They should convince the IAAF that if the petitioner was not allowed to participate, there was a chance of contempt of court proceedings against them. According to Chitra, IAAF rejected the request stating that its guidelines did not permit the inclusion of the athlete after July 27. Even after the date, athletes had been included in the event. The court replied that it would be examined if the AFI did anything deliberately to exclude the petitioner. The petition also said that the action of AFI amounted to deliberate disobedience of the High Court order.
