HC orders shooter to be included in India squad

NEW DELHI: “A nation as big as India cannot deprive a sportsperson of an opportunity to participate in an event, if he or she is otherwise eligible, merely because expenses are involved,” the Delhi High Court said while directing the Paralympics Council of India (PCI) to include a paralympic shooter for the World Shooting Para Sport Championship in South Korea.

The court’s remarks came while hearing a plea filed by paralympic shooter Naresh Kumar who was denied participation at the Cheongju tournament to be held from May 1-12.

PCI had informed the court that taking Arjuna Award winner Kumar to the Korea event would mean spending more funds with little possibility of a medal because of a change in qualification scores.

Justice Rajiv Shakdher said:“experience has shown that on a given day even the best performers fail. The selection of sports person is dependent on uniform application of norms by the selectors.”

In his petition Kumar said he had written a letter to the president of the National Paralympic Committee (NPC) last year raising concerns over corrupt practices in the federation and because of that, he was dropped from the squad.

The court compared Kumar’s trials’ score with those of participants sent to UAE for the 2018 AI Ain Para Sport World Cup and found Kumar had scored better than the others in some events if not all.