High court seeks status
report on doping

Expressing concern over the delay in expediting action in doping cases, the Delhi high court on Wednesday directed the Centre and Sports Authority of India to file comprehensive status reports on the action taken so far against sportspersons found guilty of the malpractice.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice S B Sinha and Justice A K Sikri directed the counsel for the Union Ministry of Sports and SAI to submit the reports by April 3.

The direction was issued during the hearing of a pending Public Interest Litigation by an organisation, Health Fitness Trust, run by former international athlete Sunita Godara.

HFT's health advisor Dalbir Singh, who has been appearing in person to plead the case, claimed that since 1991, out of 3,078 sportspersons, 257 were found to be positive for use of banned drugs but no action was taken against them by their respective sports federations.

The Sports Authority of India had last year submitted to the court a list of sportspersons found guilty of doping, but the court declined to open it following a request from the SAI and the government counsel, who said making the names public would cause more harm to sports in the country.

Meanwhile, the SAI, in an affidavit filed today, said its role is limited to conducting the tests in its laboratory and sending the results to respective federations from which the samples were received.

"It is exclusively and entirely within the purview and jurisdiction of the concerned federation to take action against the concerned sportsperson," the SAI added.