BEFORE THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA CHANDIGARH *** CWP NO. 19875 OF 2006 DATE OF DECISION: 22.09.2008 *** Wonderland Skate Club vs Union of India and others. *** CORAM: Hon'ble Mr. Justice T.S.Thakur, CJ and Hon'ble Mr. Justice Surya Kant. *** Present: Shri Jatin Salwan, Advocate, for the petitioner. Shri Onkar Singh Batalvi, Advocate, for UOI. Shri Ashok Bhasin, Sr.Advocate, with Shri Lovkesh Sawhney, Advocate, and Shri Vikram Chaudhary, Advocate, for respondents No. 1 and 2. Shri A.Roy, Advocate. Shri Arun Walia, Advocate, for respondent No.4. *** T.S.Thakur, CJ (Oral) This petition has been filed in public interest. It prays for a mandamus directing Union of India and the Indian Olympic Association through its Secretary to include Roller Skating as one of the medal disciplines in the National Games that were then scheduled to be held from 9th February to 18th February, 2007 at Gauhati (Assam). In response to a notice of motion issued by this Court to the respondents, no one entered appearance on behalf of respondent No.2- Indian Olympic Association, to justify the non-inclusion of Roller Skating in the games referred to above. This Court, therefore, passed an order on -2- CWP NO. 19875 OF 2006 January 31, 2007 directing the Indian Olympic Association and the Assam Olympic Association (Organizer of the National Games-2007) to include Roller Skating as one of the medal disciplines in the National Games referred to above. Since the Indian Olympic Association failed to comply with the said direction, contempt petition No. 524 of 2007 was filed in this Court in which the petitioner alleged a deliberate defiance of the order passed by this Court on the part of the Indian Olympic Association as well as Assam Olympic Association. The Indian Olympic Association has in its counter affidavit and the reply to the contempt petition mentioned earlier not only questioned the locus standi of the petitioner, to maintain this writ petition but additionally pointed out that Roller Skating is not a recognized Olympic event for Olympic Games. It is, according to the Indian Olympic Association only a demonstration game which is more popular in some part of the country than others. It is submitted that National Games are organized by the Indian Olympic Association every two years, in which apart from Olympic events the Association includes only two such games as are popular in a given region. Since the number of such regionally popular games is large, selection of two games played as demonstration events depends also on the venue of the said games. The process of selection of such demonstration games in the National Games also takes place much in advance of the holding of the games to enable the participating States to select and send their teams to compete in such games. The respondents in the above backdrop contend that the directions issued by this Court for inclusion of Roller Skating as a medal discipline in Gauhati, could not be implemented as the period available for such inclusion was too short to enable the -3- CWP NO. 19875 OF 2006 participating States to send their participating teams and the Olympic Association to arrange necessary technical assistance in the form of Referees, technical hands etc. Besides the necessary infrastructure for hosting the said event could not be created by the Organizing Committee of the National Games. The respondent Indian Olympic Association has further stated that although there is a federation at the National level for holding Roller Skating as a game but no request was received from the said Federation for inclusion of Roller Skating as a medal event in the National Games till recently. The Indian Olympic Association is, according to M/S Ashok Bhasin and Lovkesh Sawhney now ready to examine the said request and take an appropriate decision in the matter, under intimation to the Roller Skating Federation of India and also to the petitioner. It is contended by the learned counsel that the selection for the next games scheduled to be held in Ranchi in the State of Jharkhand has already taken place and that any decision regarding inclusion of Roller Skating at this stage maybe difficult yet feasible. On behalf of the petitioner-club, it was argued by Mr. Jatin Salwan that Roller Skating is recognized by the Indian Olympic Association and was earlier included in the National Games. He further contended that Roller Skating has also been included in 2010 Asians Games as a medal discipline. There is therefore no justification for treating roller skating as a regional game nor can it be compared with any other demonstration event. He argued that in the competition held in December 2007 in Kolkata Indian Women had won the championship while the boys won bronze medal. -4- CWP NO. 19875 OF 2006 We have given our careful consideration to the submissions made by the learned counsel. The Indian Olympic Association it is common ground holds the National Games every two years in which all such events as are recognized by the International Olympic Committee are included. It is not in dispute that Roller Skating is not one of such events recognized by the said committee. Even so, Roller Skating has been included in some of the National games held in the past and may be even in the Asian Games as pointed out by the counsel for the petitioner. Whether or not Roller Skating deserves to be included on a regular basis as a medal discipline, is however a matter upon which this court cannot authoritatively pronounce any judgment. That is because the inclusion of a particular game would depend upon a variety of factors to be considered by the Olympic Association. Having said so, we see no reason why the request made by the Roller Skating Federation of India to the Indian Olympic Association for inclusion of Roller Skating Game in the forth coming Games should not be considered on its merits by the said Association. To that extent even M/S Bhasin and Sawhney, appearing for the Indian Olympic Association have no objection. They submitted that for the inclusion of the event in the forth- coming Games, the Indian Olympic Association would consider the request made by the Federation and take an appropriate decision un-influenced of the fact that the petitioner-club has dragged them to this Court and even accused them of having committed contempt. In the totality of the above circumstances, therefore, this writ petition can in our opinion be disposed of with a suitable direction to the Indian Olympic Association to consider the request made by the Roller Skating Federation of India for inclusion of the Roller Skating as a medal -5- CWP NO. 19875 OF 2006 discipline in the forthcoming games. The needful shall be done by the Indian Olympic Association expeditiously but not later than four weeks from today, under an intimation to the Roller Skating Federation of India and also to the petitioner herein. The writ petition is, accordingly, disposed of with the above direction, leaving the parties to bear their own costs. All the previous orders passed by this court on the subject shall to that extent stand modified. A copy of the order be given dasti. (T.S.THAKUR) CHIEF JUSTICE (SURYA KANT) JUDGE September 22, 2008 Malik