The Indian government has recognised the All India Tennis Association again a year after the sports ministry had declined its renewal as a National Sports Federation, reported PTI. A formal communication was sent out by the ministry to the national tennis association of the country in this regard.
The AITA had been de-recognised by the government for not complying with the ministry’s sports development code. The AITA’s disagreement with the ministry on continuing with then president Anil Khanna instead of conducting elections anew was also one of the reasons cited at the time.
Following Khanna’s resignation from the post, the AITA appointed former Indian Revenue Service officer Praveen Mahajan as the president in an executive committee meeting in 2016. Mahajan’s appointment and subsequent tenure up to 2020 was also confirmed in a Special General Meeting in February 2017.
“We had just kept their recognition in abeyance, pending a verification with regards to new AITA President,” a senior ministry official told the news agency. “After Anil Khanna quit, they elected Mahajan but we had to see if there’s approval from the competent authority.”
The official added, “It was a routine verification process and nothing else. After receiving documents [from the Central Administrative Tribunal], we see no reason to delay it. Actually we should have clarified earlier that we never de-recognised AITA. So this recognition is outcome of a verification process and it was not an issue which required any adjudication.”