HC rejects TT player's plea against non-selection for Commonwealth Games

Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition filed by table tennis player Archana Kamath against her non-selection for the women's squad for the upcoming Commonwealth Games in the UK.

The division bench of Justice P S Dinesh Kumar and Justice C M Poonacha dismissed the petition stating that the issue of selection was the domain of the expert committee involved in the selection. "These are matters within the domain of the expert committee and in this case in the domain of the Committee of Administrators.

The Delhi High Court has also dismissed a writ petition filed by R8 wherein the very selection was challenged. In our view the petition does not merit consideration and accordingly it is dismissed," the bench said. The court had last week issued an interim order, staying the sending of list of selected candidates. The Delhi High Court on Tuesday dismissed a similar petition by Swastika Ghosh, another table tennis player. Swastika was one of the respondents in Kamath's petition.

The Karnataka HC was informed by the senior advocate appearing for the Athletics Federation of India Vikram Huilgol that a Committee of Administrators (CoA) was appointed to conduct the selection process as per the direction of the Delhi High Court in February. The CoA is headed by a former Chief Justice and two other eminent persons.

Kamath was initially included in the table tennis squad as an 'exception' as she did not meet the selection criteria laid down by TTFI, but was suddenly dropped by the CoA and Diya Chitale was brought in her place. Shocked by the sudden ouster from the squad, Kamath, the world number four player in women's doubles along with Manika Batra, had filed the writ petition against the union government, TTFI, Sports Authority of India and other members of the women's team.

The CoA had earlier announced an eight-member squad in Bengaluru with the women's team subject to clearance from Sports Authority of India. As per the original list, the selection committee had picked Batra, Kamath, Sreeja Akula and Reeth Rishya in the team with Chitale as the standby. The men's team included veteran Sharath Kamal, G Sathiyan, Harmeet Desai and Sanil Shetty with Manush as a reserve.

The team selection factors in performances in domestic (50 per cent) and international tournaments (30 per cent) while the remaining 20 per cent is left for the selectors' discretion. However, the CoA has decided to change the ratio to 40, 40 and 20 from next season. The CoA's decisions did not go down well with several players with the likes of Chitale, Manush Shah, Swastika Ghosh moving the court before Kamath.