Readmit girls ‘weeded out’ by sports authority: High court

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat high court quashed a decision of the Sports Authority of Gujarat to expel two schoolgirls — who had been adjudged “sports talent” — from an international school over their alleged poor performances and ordered that they be readmitted to the school. After they were “weeded out” from the list of young talent by the sports authority’s director of district level sports schools (DLSS) on May 6, 2022, the girls helped their teams win medals at the Khel Mahakumbh, raising questions about the decision to expel them from the school for being poor performers. Both girls proved the authority wrong by their performances, but their families were not told about this. The families were informed on June 14, 2022, by the hostel warden that the girls had been expelled from the school. The families were not able to get the girls admitted to other schools, and they approached the high court through advocate Archita Prajapati. Before the HC, it was submitted that once a child is selected under the scheme as a young talent or proven talent in sports, the state government will spend at least Rs 1.68 lakh per annum on the student. The student is admitted to a boarding school with sports facilities and the government bears all their expenditure. Non-performing students are weeded out of the DLSS scheme so deserving candidates can be brought in. The DLSS director decided to weed out 12 students including the two petitioners in May 2022. After their stellar performances, by the Class 7 student in football and the Class 9 student in basketball, at the Khel Mahakumbh event, their coach recommended that the sports authority reconsider retaining the Class 9 student in the DLSS. But this request was not heeded. Before the HC, advocate Prajapati argued that the decision was not even communicated to the students or parents. They were made to play in the tournaments after being weeded out of the scheme. The authority did not even bother to consider the fact that there was no tournament for the last two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic and their performance could not be evaluated. The HC asked the authorities what level of performance was expected from the girls. The HC finally quashed the order to remove the students with an observation, “The court expects the principles of natural justice and fair play be followed by the respondents herein.” As the younger student has already been re-admitted by the school, the HC directed the readmission of the older girl.