Court issues notice to govt after athletes seek compensation

Considering pleas filed by two athletes Dharam Raj Yadav and Chunni Lal, Delhi high court issued a notice to the central government and National Anti-Doping Agency on Monday. The two pleas challenge a provision of the NADA Rules 2015 and sought compensation claiming that the athletes were suspended 'illegally'.

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday issued a notice to the Central government and the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) on the pleas filed by two athletes challenging a provision of the NADA Rules 2015 and seeking compensation claiming that they were suspended illegally.

A division bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalana asked the Centre and NADA to file a reply on the two pleas filed by Dharam Raj Yadav and Chunni Lal separately, through advocate Saurabh Mishra.

Yadav and Lal, international discus throw and fencing athletes, told the court that they were wrongfully placed under suspension on March 5, 2019, on the basis of a wrongfully decided Anti Doping Agency (ADR), 2015 violation.

Lal in his plea said that the suspension has effectively deprived him of competing in any fencing tournament for a period of one year, and therefore, the actions of the respondent have violated the fundamental right under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India.

Yadav and Lal have sought directions to the NADA to compensate them for losses suffered by them on account of the unlawful suspension.

'Since the impugned provision i.e. Article 7.3.1 (f) of the NADA Rules requires the athlete to pay for the procure the laboratory documentation package (LDP), the Petitioner had to wait for a re-analysis report to be prepared in March 2020 which found the Petitioner to have not committed an anti-doping rule violation,' the plea said.

The plea submitted that Article 7.3.1 (f) requires the petitioner to pay a fee for procuring the LDP which forms the basis of the charge of doping levied against him. By charging a fee for procuring the LDP, the impugned provision has in effect charged the accused of securing access to justice and impinges on his right to secure a fair trial.

Lal is an international fencing athlete and winner of a gold medal in both senior and junior national fencing teams (2018) and a silver medal in the Junior Commonwealth Games (2018). Yadav has won numerous medals in both national and international athletic meets.

The High Court has also tagged the two fresh petitions with other four similar and connected petitions pending before it.

ANI