The court was told that chief national jr coach Jaspal Rana has mentored several budding shooters, including Manu Bhaker.
The Delhi State Rifle Association, on Friday, moved the Delhi High Court over the government’s decision to omit junior national coach Jaspal Rana from the Dronacharya Awards winners’ list this year. Reacting to the plea, Justice Navin Chawla asked the sports ministry to produce the records related to the selection of awardees, who will be honoured at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on August 29. The report has to be submitted by August 27.
The Delhi State Rifle Association alleged that there was “lack of transparency in the process.” The court’s interim direction came after advocate Rahul Mehra, appearing for the association, argued that he is not seeking stay on the award ceremony, but the authorities be directed to award the Dronacharya to Rana.
The bench said the petition needs to be withdrawn since it has not been filed by Rana himself. Mehra argued that Rana is in Rio de Janeiro for the World Cup, which gets underway next week, and will get his authorisation through e-mail or procure a scanned copy of vakalatnaama by Monday.
Agreeing to the same, the court stated: “respondent no. 1 (Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports) will produce the record on Tuesday relating to the selection process of the Dronacharya Award 2019…”
As per the plea, the 43-year-old Rana, the national junior pistol coach, was not nominated for the Dronacharya Award despite him meeting all requisite criteria under the scheme notified by the ministry. Central Government Standing Counsel Ripudaman Bhardwaj, however, contended that “this is not the end of the world”. To which, Mehra reacted: “This the government say every time, despite the fact that several shooters have trained under him”.
Mehra apprised the court that Rana has coached several junior shooters including international medal winners Saurabh Chaudhary, Manu Bhaker and Anish Bhanwala. He added that other junior shooters like Anmol Jain, Arjun Singh Cheema, Yashwini S Deswal, Vijayveer Sidhu, Udhayveer Sidhu and Devanshi Rana too have been coached by Rana.
Mehra argued that the process of ‘non-grant of the Dronacharya award to Rana’ is “arbitrary and contrary to the objective criteria laid down in the Scheme and Criteria, which the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports as well as the Selection Committee is bound by.”
