You are covered under RTI Act if you use the word ‘India’
11 Jul, 2013
As per the draft proposals put up by the sports ministry on its website, any sports organisation which represents India in the international events or uses the term ‘India’ in its name woud be covered under the RTI Act, 2005. The sports ministry has made stringent conditions in the draft for the use of the term ‘India’ by any sports body. Apart from making all such establishments transparent in terms of the RTI Act, the proposal also fixes a mandatory retirement at the age of 70 years. The other proposals include:
- Making of a sports election commission to ensure free and fair polls for the sports bodies.
- Ensuring that the conditions for getting recognised by the international sports apex organisations are duly followed by the national sports bodies.
- Fulfilling the Olympic charter
- Making of a sports appellate tribunal
- Failure to follow the provisions of the RTI Act by a sports organisation would make them ineligible to use the world ‘India’
- A copy of the draft would be sent to the International Olympic Committee (IOC)
As per the Draft National Sports Development Bill, only those sports federations who come under the ambit of the Right to Information Act (RTI) shall have the right to use ‘India’ as the part of the name of the team. The Draft National Sports Development Bill were submitted to the ministry of youth affairs and sports by the committee headed by Justice (retired) Mukul Mudgal which are likely to invite prtests from the organsiations like BCCI. If the Draft Sports Bill is passed by the Parliament as such, then the team selected by the BCCI cannot claim to officially represent ‘India’ at international matches.
Clause (h) of the proposed Bill talks of the use of country name in sporting activities as under:
“In order to represent India in international events and to have a right for a particular sport federation to use ‘India’ or ‘Indian’ in the sport scenario, the federation shall have to comply with Chapter IV (Unethical practices in Sports) and Chapter IX (Applicability of Right to Information Act).”
Citizens can give their comments on the website.