Maharashtra affiliation issue gets murkier

Just when Hockey India (HI) has warded off one crisis, another looms large for the body, which goes to polls on Feb. 7. HI’s affiliation process and the alleged interference of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and its affiliates in the process has come under scrutiny with some groups taking the matter to court.

On Thursday, the Mumbai High Court admitted a petition challenging the affiliation process in Maharashtra on a one-state-one-association basis. The petition was moved by the Mumbai and Vidarbha hockey associations along with a faction of the Maharashtra Hockey Association, all of whom have been ignored.

HI has given recognition to a group owing alliance to IOA president Suresh Kalmadi, who is reportedly one of the contestants for the HI president’s post. The affiliation has been challenged before a double-bench, which has asked the petitioners to issue notices to HI, IOA, Maharashtra Olympic Association (MOA) and the Sports Ministry among others.
The petition alleges that HI has not even responded to complaints. HI had, in its meeting on Nov. 30, granted affiliation to a faction of the Maharashtra Hockey

Association led by president Victor Ellis and secretary Ikram Khan. “The fact that two bodies are claiming separate affiliation proves that proper merger had not taken place,” said Mumbai Hockey Association spokesman Joaquim Carvalho.