- Introduction:
The Sports Law and Welfare Association of India is a national non-profit professional organization working towards the common goal of understanding, promoting and promoting sports law in India and promoting sport by bringing together lawyers and athletes. It advises on various issues including sport regulation, governing bodies, general sports law issues, intellectual property issues in sport and litigation before sports courts for sportspeople and sports federations. The Sports Authority of India was established to meet the need for a leading organization to coordinate various sporting activities in India.[1] To address this problem, a system of sports dispute resolution, including arbitration, mediation and arbitration has been introduced. The National Sports Federation was formed to resolve sport-related disputes. In 2010, the Secretary General of Indian Sports Law and Welfare Association submitted the Indian Olympic Association a draft of the Sports Tribunal (India) Act 2010, declaring that there should be an Indian Arbitration Court for Sport.[2]
- Role of Courts and Tribunals:
One of the most important issues in Indian sport today is the settlement of disputes and that is the settlement of disputes by the National Sports Federations (NSFs). The problem facing Indian sports law is the intervention of the courts by the Indian sports authorities. Trying to understand the problem by looking at an example of what happened in court when the International Olympic Committee banned the Indian Olympic Association and declared that it had not used the international mechanism for settling sports-related disputes between the federation and national sports organisations.[3]
National sports federations (NSFs) have largely failed in India to establish satisfactory internal mechanisms and forums to address these issues. For the reasons outlined above, athletes are in the unenviable position of having to resort to national courts to resolve their complaints. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that they also failed to include arbitration clauses in their regulations which give athletes the right to appeal to the International Court of Sport (CAS).[4]
It should be noted that sports disputes tend to be based on complex legal issues. However, it should also be noted that the Indian Sports Authority, which is affiliated to the Indian Olympic Federation, is very much involved in the complex and unreasonable manner of dispute resolution.[5]
Sport has been one of the most important parts of Indian history, from the Indus civilisation to the Mughal dynasty and colonial times, but our country has not developed an effective method of resolving disputes to resolve problems in the field of sports law. This article discusses cases in which arbitration has proven to be an effective way to address problems at national and international level. To this end, we will discuss issues in this area and propose how to refine the mechanisms of sports arbitration.[6]
The only thing that matters in sport is that people gain fame and recognition for their talents and extraordinary abilities but bad practices such as corruption, special treatment, labour abuse, drug abuse, and politics have begun to undermine the sanctity of sport. This article traces the development of sports law and highlights some of the key issues of sports law. The first part is concerned with the introduction of sports law, including the development of the law, its differences between amateur and professional sports, international sports law, global sports law, etc.[7]
[1] https://www.indialawjournal.org/archives/volume3/issue_2/article_by_Gaurang.html
[2] http://www.legalservicesindia.com/law/article/1487/2/WHERE-DOES-INDIA-STAND-IN-SPORTS-DISPUTE-RESOLUTION
[3] http://www.legalservicesindia.com/law/article/1487/2/WHERE-DOES-INDIA-STAND-IN-SPORTS-DISPUTE-RESOLUTION
[4] https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/item/the-need-for-better-dispute-resolution-systems-in-indian-sport-and-the-government-s-new-guidelines
[5] https://www.mondaq.com/india/sport/769938/sports-law-in-india
[6] https://www.jurist.org/commentary/2020/04/yadav-gupta-sports-arbitration/