Athlete plea challenging CAs jurisdiction rejected

New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Monday refused to entertain an athlete’s plea challenging the jurisdiction of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Geneva, which binds Indian sportspersons to undergo doping test.

A bench of acting chief justice Gita Mittal and justice C. Hari Shankar directed the petitioner to make a representation before the sports ministry and disposed of the plea.

“The issue raised in the present petition deserves scrutiny by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA). The writ petition has been filed without making a representation to the respondents.

“In view of the above, the petition is disposed of with a direction to the the petitioner to serve the copies of petition to IOA and NADA within one week. All the respondents shall consider the issues raised in the petition and take a final view within eight weeks thereafter,” the bench said.

The high court also granted liberty to the athlete to approach it if he is aggrieved by the decision of the respondents.

The court was hearing a plea filed by athlete Bhawani Singh Rathore challenging the jurisdiction of the CAS in Geneva which binds Indian sportspersons to undergo doping test.

The plea had also challenged the jurisdiction of CAS to try the Indian sportpersons.