The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its verdict on the twin issue of adopting a new constitution for the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and approving the conduct of the Indian Super League (ISL), even while making it clear that it is not going to hold back the verdict until the National Sports Governance Act, 2025, is formally notified.
A bench of Justice PS Narasimha and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said it will pass a “short order” on the ISL and a detailed order thereafter on the Justice L Nageswara Rao committee, which had suggested several radical changes to the existing constitution.
Both the verdicts are expected to delivered in a fortnight with the order on ISL likely to come first in the next couple of days.
The bench on Monday heard senior advocates Ranjit Kumar, Gopal Sankaranaryanan, PIL petitioner and advocate Rahul Mehra who is also a senior advocate, senior advocate Raghenth Basant appearing for former India captain Bhaichung Bhutia, senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy and other counsels appearing for various stakeholders in the matter.
Upon inquiry from the bench, additional solicitor general KM Natraj, appearing for the Union sports ministry, said it would take at least another two to three months before the sports act is formally notified, but the court can proceed with the task of approving the draft constitution and the subsequent changes made to it by the Justice Nageswara Rao panel.
The changes include allowing an office bearer to hold office for a maximum of 12 years during their lifetime, with a cooling-off period after eight years. Further, the recommendation had capped the upper age limit of an office bearer to 70. Besides these radical changes, the Justice Rao panel made several recommendations that did not sit well with some stakeholders, who raised objections.
Subsequently, the apex court had requested Justice Rao to prepare a note taking into consideration the objections and give his own opinion.
The subsequent note from Justice Rao and other issues were briefly discussed on Monday, after which the top court reserved its verdict.
Earlier Fifa, the world governing body, had warned the AIFF to be compliant with an elected body and a full-fledged constitution by October 30, failing which the latter would face sanctions, including suspension of its membership.
On August 28, the AIFF and Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL) had placed before the bench a “consensual resolution” regarding the conduct of the Indian football season 2025–26 in which it had assured that the entire process would be completed by October 15.
The decision appeared to have temporarily brought to an end the row between the AIFF and FSDL that had resulted in a stalemate over the conduct of the ISL.