The Supreme Court on Wednesday refrained from passing any orders on the All India Football Federation (AIFF) plea.
The AIFF had moved the apex court for the recall of two supposedly contentious directions of the top court’s September 19 judgment relating to the amendment of its constitution and dual memberships of the office-bearers.
The two issues relate to the office-bearers of AIFF holding dual posts in the federation and respective state associations, and the directive of the apex court that any amendment to the draft constitution formulated by it should be done in the future, only with the consent of the top court.
A bench of Justice PS Narasimha and Justice Joymalya Bagchi posted the matter for further hearing to October 28.
The bench, which briefly heard senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, Amicus curiae Gopal Sankarnarayanan and petitioner in person Rahul Mehra, clarified that it was not saying anything on the issue.
However, it orally noted that the restriction on office-bearers holding dual posts will come into force only from September 2026, when the term of the present office-bearers ends.
Clauses (b) and (c) of Article 25 of the constitution says...
b) In the event a person is elected as an Office-Bearer in the Executive Committee of the AIFF and holds a position of an Office-Bearer in a Member Association, he/she
shall automatically be deemed to have vacated his/her position in the Member Association.
c) Similarly, in the event that a person is elected as an Office-bearer in a Member Association and holds a position of an Office-bearer in the Executive Committee of the AIFF, he/ she shall automatically be deemed to have vacated his/her position in the Member Association.
The AIFF, on October 12, adopted the apex court-approved constitution at its special general body meeting, but left out two contentious clauses “pending directions from the apex court”.