Chief Justice (Retd.) Geeta Mittal will be the chairperson of a three-member Committee of Administrators (CoA) to run the day-to-day affairs of the Table Tennis Federation of India.
In the order dated February 11, Delhi High Court Justice Rekha Palli named Chetan Mittal (senior advocate) and S.D. Mudgil as members of the committee. The tenure of the committee was not specified.
The order was on a petition filed by table tennis player Manika Batra in September following a show cause notice served by the TTFI, in August, and not selecting her for the Asian championship after she absented from the National camp in Sonepat in September.
As reported earlier, the Court suspended the TTFI on Friday following an inquiry report by a three-member Committee it appointed in November 2021.
Committee’s powers
On the functioning of the CoA, the Court said, “The CoA will have the power to issue all appropriate directions, under the signatures of the Chairperson, as may be necessary for the functioning of the federation. The CoA will be entitled to utilise the existing office of the TTFI as also avail the services of the (TTFI’s) staff. All communications on behalf of the TTFI with any sportsperson or international sports bodies, will now take place only through the CoA.”
The court also fixed a monthly honorarium of Rs. 3 lakh to the chairperson and Rs. 1 lakh each to the members of the CoA.
The order further said, “A copy of the inquiry report of the (three-member) Committee appointed by this Court on 17.11.2021, besides being furnished to all the parties by the Registry, will also be furnished to the CoA. The CoA is, in turn, requested to send a copy of the same to the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) so that the petitioner (Manika) is relieved of the trauma she is undergoing on account of the Show Cause Notice issued to her by the ITTF.”
The ITTF’s Integrity Unit is inquiring into Manika’s allegations that team coach Soumyadeep Roy had asked her to lose the Asian Olympic Qualifying match to teammate Sutirtha Mukherjee in Doha on March 18.
As it turned out, Sutirtha beat Manika 4-2 and qualified for the Tokyo Olympics from South Asia and Manika qualified on the basis of being the highest ranked player among all the losers across various Asian regions. Later, Manika said she had played under pressure and lost despite having given her best on the day.
