'Sports associations are ailing bodies' – Supreme Court's scathing statement

The sports associations in India are like 'ailing bodies', Supreme Court remarked on Monday.

The Bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh made the statement while hearing a plea by Maharashtra Wrestling Association against its de-affiliation by the Wrestling Federation of India.

The state association moved the apex court in the country after the Bombay High Court had dismissed its petition, terming the plea to be non-maintainable.

"All these sports associations, there is nothing like sports in them," the Supreme Court said, as per Bar and Bench. "All are ailing bodies, we do not know they are grappling for what."

This observation from the Supreme Court comes at a time when multiple sports federations in the country are struggling with court cases across various courts in the country.

A report in The Indian Express on Monday noted that over the last decade about 770 sport cases reached courts in India. Over 220 of those cases were related to governance and administration.