Effective Alternative Dispute Resolution system in Sports Industry is the need of the hour

“The harder the battle, the sweeter the victory.” – Les Lete

The sports industry is growing rapidly in India and people’s interest in the particular sports has rapidly increased because of the events like the Indian Premier League, Hockey India League and many other domestic leagues in various sports. According to Star India Managing Director, Mr. Sanjay Gupta sports industry in India has the potential to become $ 10 billion industry in the next 5 to 7 years. It cannot be denied that with the increase in the industry there will be an increase in the disputes which will either be between players, committees or spectators.

 Thus the above statement by Les Lete sums up the life of today's athlete as he will have to face struggle and various issues both on and off the field. There are several bodies in India such as Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS), National Sports Federation (NSF), Sports Authority of India (SAI), etc. which tries to resolve these struggles or disputes faces by the athletes or organizers.

However, in recent years these bodies have failed to cope up with the recent developments in Industry. Sports Industry generally follows the doctrine “Legally autonomous” which generally means that all the disputes are as far as possibles will be resolved internally within the forum or committee so established by the NSF.

However, a person aggrieved against the NSF order generally haves two options i.e. either he can plead to NSF to reconsider the alleged order or he can go the court under writ jurisdiction. Both the options are immaterial as they fail to consider the present time circumstances. It is apposite to say that it will be very hard for NSF to reconsider its own case and courts might take too much time to decide a case as of which the final outcome of the particular case will be irrelevant. In fact, Delhi High Court in Sushil Kumar vs Union of India case has refused to entertain the writ petition and has observed that

 “Keeping in view the aforesaid, this Court is of the view that a writ Court will not interfere in the exercise of discretion of the National Sports Federation and substitute its own judgment except where the discretion is shown to have been exercised in an arbitrary or capricious or perverse manner or contrary to settled principles or practices.”

To solve such kind of disputes International Olympic Association directed to establish Indian Court of Arbitration for Sports (ICAS) and in compliance of these direction governing body of ICAS was established way back in 2011 which consist of 8 retired supreme court judges. The above governing body was set up under the chairmanship of Dr. AR. Lakshmanan, former Supreme Court judge, and former Law Commission Chairman to resolve all the sports-related disputes in India. Other 7 members of the ICAS are Justices M R Culla, R S Sodhi, B A Khan, Usha Mehra, J K Mehra, Lokeshwar Prasad, and S N Sapra. The only objective of the body was to resolve the disputes in sports as early as possible without intertwining itself with the nitty-gritty of the litigation.

However, it is not clear as to whether the governing body of ICAS is still function though I have filed RTI with the MYAS pertaining to the details of the cases decided by the ICAS and will update soon once I got the reply. Though from a bare perusal of newspaper and various government sources one cannot find rules and regulation of the ICAS unlike any other arbitration body in India. It is apposite to say that had there been proper dispute resolution process then the issues with 2 time Ranji winner Rajasthan Cricket Association would have been resolved at the earliest without causing any severe damage to the local talent of the state.

In India, sports law is a relatively new subject as a result of which it is far behind as compared to major countries. An effective dispute resolution system is very much needed specifically for sports though ICAS was a positive step in strengthening sports law/ arbitration in India. However, there is no clue about the working of the ICAS but one cannot deny the fact that if properly established such kind of tribunal will genuinely resolve the issues of sportsmen at the earliest.