16 January 2010. National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) is in the news for all the wrong reasons for the past few days. A Delhi court has declared NRAI's recent election null and void putting a question mark on the association's legal status.
The court agrees that NRAI office bearers are violating legal norms. In a stringent indictment of the NRAI office bearers the Patiala House Court has held the 2009 elections of the association invalid and barred the current President Digvijay Singh and the Secretary General Baljit Singh Sethi from holding any post or contest any association election in future too.
Singh has been the President of NRAI since 1999 while Sethi has held the post since 1985.
The judgement pointed out that as per NRAI Constitution it was illegal for any member to hold office for more than two terms.
It also cautioned other sports federation from running sports bodies like personal fiefdoms, a move which would set the alarm bells ringing across the Olympics sports spectrum.
The court ruled that monopoly of a handful of people over a long tenure can affect selection of players and be detrimental to the development of the game, a scenario which defeats the very purpose of creating a sports federation. indianshooting.com
