National Sports Tribunal: What It Can and Cannot Hear

An athlete is dropped from a squad without reasons, a state unit is disaffiliated overnight, or a federation has not held an election in years. Until recently the only realistic answer was a writ petition and a wait measured in seasons. India now has a dedicated tribunal for sports disputes, with a Supreme Court judge at its head and orders that execute like a civil court decree. What is less well known is how much section 20 deliberately keeps out of it.

Section 9 gives the National Sports Board the power to conduct an inquiry, either on its own motion or in response to a complaint received from any person or body, on matters affecting the welfare of sportspersons, the development of sports in the country, or the misuse of public funds, where it is satisfied there is reasonable cause.

But read the first proviso before you write to anybody: no such complaint shall be entertained unless the complainant has exhausted all available remedies with the National Sports Body or its affiliate units.

The second proviso is your escape hatch. The Board may still entertain the complaint if it is satisfied that going through those remedies would result in unnecessary delay or unreasonable prejudice. That is the clause to invoke, expressly and with dates, when a selection deadline or a competition window would pass before an internal committee ever meets.

Section 10(1) lets the Board, on its own motion or on a complaint by an aggrieved party, suspend or cancel the recognition of a National Sports Body or the registration of an affiliate unit. The listed grounds are specific, and three of them are the ones ordinary members of a sport actually encounter:

• the body failed to hold elections for its Executive Committee, or committed gross irregularities in the election procedure
• it failed to publish its annual audited accounts
• it has misused, misapplied or misappropriated any public funds

The other grounds cover suspension or cancellation by the concerned International Sports Body, suspension or disaffiliation of an affiliate unit by its National Sports Body, violation of the Act, rules, regulations, eligibility criteria or recognition conditions, and a report of gross irregularities by the Registrar of Companies or Registrar of Societies.

Where the trigger is an international suspension or a disaffiliation by the National Sports Body, the proviso makes the Board's suspension co-terminus with it, extendable by the Board for reasons recorded in writing.

Section 17(1) requires the Central Government to constitute, by notification, a National Sports Tribunal of a chairperson and two other members, to provide for the independent, speedy, effective and cost-efficient disposal of sports related disputes.

Section 17(2): the chairperson shall be a person who is or has been a Judge of the Supreme Court or the Chief Justice of a High Court. Section 17(3): the members shall be persons of eminence in public life with wide knowledge and experience in sports, public administration and law.

Section 17(4) puts appointments with a Search-cum-Selection Committee of the Chief Justice of India or a Supreme Court Judge recommended by the CJI as chairperson, the Secretary in the Ministry of Law and Justice, and the Secretary in the Department of Sports. Section 17(6) requires that Committee to recommend a panel of two names, with the Central Government deciding preferably within three months.

Section 17(9) leaves the Tribunal to formulate its own procedure including the timelines for disposal of matters, and section 17(10) charges its expenses to the Consolidated Fund of India.

Section 20 is the provision to check before you draft anything. The Tribunal shall not have jurisdiction over:

The practical filter is simple. If your dispute belongs to an international body, an event in progress, or anti-doping machinery, this Tribunal is not your forum, however unfair the underlying decision feels.

Section 23 bars civil courts: no civil court shall have jurisdiction over any matter the Tribunal is empowered to determine, and no injunction shall be granted by any court or authority in respect of action taken under the Tribunal's powers.

Section 24(1) gives the Tribunal the powers of a civil court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 for summoning and examining persons on oath, requiring discovery and production of documents, receiving evidence on affidavits, calling for any public record from any office subject to sections 129 and 130 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, issuing commissions, reviewing its decisions, deciding ex parte or dismissing for default, and setting aside such orders.

Section 24(2) makes every proceeding a judicial proceeding within sections 228, 229, 233, 257 and 267 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and section 24(3) deems the Tribunal a civil court for section 215 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. Section 21 makes members, officers and employees of the Board and Tribunal public servants within section 2(28) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.

Section 25(1): unless the International Charters and Statutes provide for an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, an appeal lies to the Supreme Court against any order that is not interlocutory. Section 25(2): no appeal against a decision made with the consent of the parties. Section 25(3): the appeal must be filed within thirty days, with power in the Supreme Court to condone delay for sufficient cause.

Section 26(1) makes an order of the Tribunal executable as a decree of a civil court, and section 26(2) lets the Tribunal transmit its order to a civil court with local jurisdiction, which shall execute it as if it were its own decree.

The National Sports Governance Act, 2025 is Act No. 25 of 2025, assented on 18 August 2025, and it commenced in stages.

1. 1 January 2026, vide notification S.O. 6152(E) dated 31 December 2025, brought in a first set of provisions including sections 14 and 15 and sub-sections (1) to (7) and (10) of section 17, which is the Tribunal's constitution.
2. 12 May 2026, vide notification S.O. 2406(E) dated 12 May 2026, brought in a further set including sub-sections (8) and (9) of section 17 and sections 18, 19, 21, 28 and 29.

Both dates have passed. Because the Act commenced in parts, check which provision you are relying on against the relevant notification rather than assuming the whole Act started on one day.

Recognised National Sports Bodies substantially financed by government have long been treated as public authorities in RTI practice, and the Act now adds record duties of its own.

1. A copy of the annual audited accounts of the National Sports Body /
   affiliate unit for the last three financial years, publication of
   which is a ground under section 10(1)(e)(ii) of the National Sports
   Governance Act, 2025.
2. The date of the last election to the Executive Committee, and a
   copy of the election result and the returning officer's report.
3. A copy of any complaint received by the National Sports Board
   under section 9 in respect of this body in the last one year, and
   the action taken on it.
4. A copy of the notification constituting the National Sports
   Tribunal under section 17(1), and the date notified under
   section 22(1) for transfer of pending cases.
5. The selection criteria applied for the squad / team named on
   ......... , and the minutes of the selection committee meeting.

Send it to the Public Information Officer of the Department of Sports, or of the body itself where it is a public authority. Sport runs on seasons, so the thirty day reply window in section 7 of the RTI Act is worth starting the day a squad is announced rather than the week before the next one. Practical help: the AI RTI Drafter for the wording, the RTI Timeline Calculator for the deadline, the First Appeal Builder if the thirty days pass in silence, and The RTI Playbook for the route beyond that.

Point 5 matters most for a selection dispute. Section 9's first proviso wants you to have exhausted internal remedies, and a dated RTI reply showing what the criteria actually were is the cleanest way to show you tried and what you were told.

For a complaint to the National Sports Board, no. The first proviso to section 9 requires you to have exhausted all available remedies with the National Sports Body or its affiliate units. The second proviso lets the Board entertain the complaint anyway if it is satisfied that using those remedies would cause unnecessary delay or unreasonable prejudice, so say plainly why that applies to you.

No, where Disciplinary Panels constituted under the National Anti-Doping Act, 2022 have exclusive jurisdiction. Section 20© expressly excludes those disputes from the Tribunal.

Section 20(a) excludes any dispute or conflict arising during the Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games or similar events organised by International Federations. Those go to the event's own mechanism, and section 20(b) separately preserves the exclusive jurisdiction of the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Section 25(1) gives an appeal to the Supreme Court against any order that is not interlocutory, unless the International Charters and Statutes provide for an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport instead. Section 25(3) sets thirty days from the date of the decision, extendable by the Supreme Court for sufficient cause. Section 25(2) bars an appeal against a decision made with the consent of the parties.

Yes. Section 26(1) makes an order executable as a decree of a civil court, with the Tribunal having all the powers of a civil court for that purpose, and section 26(2) allows transmission to a local civil court which shall execute it as its own decree.

Both are listed. Section 10(1)(e) covers failure to hold Executive Committee elections or gross irregularities in the election procedure, failure to publish annual audited accounts, and misuse, misapplication or misappropriation of public funds. On any of these the Board may suspend or cancel recognition or registration.

• The National Sports Governance Act, 2025, Act No. 25 of 2025, assented 18 August 2025. Commenced in parts on 1 January 2026 vide notification S.O. 6152 dated 31 December 2025, and on 12 May 2026 vide notification S.O. 2406 dated 12 May 2026. Sections 9, 10, 17 to 26. Full text on India Code at indiacode.gov.in
• The National Anti-Doping Act, 2022, referred to in section 20©
• The Right to Information Act, 2005, sections 6 and 7, full text at RTI Act 2005 on RTI Wiki

• National sports federations under RTI: Delhi High Court
• Are fantasy sports legal in India
• Citizen RTI playbook: file, escalate, win
• RTI case database

Reviewed by Dr. Shrawan Kumar Pathak. This page is general legal information, not legal advice. Statutory text quoted from Act No. 25 of 2025 as published on India Code, and commencement details from the notification footnotes in that text. Whether the Tribunal has been constituted and the date notified under section 22(1) for transfer of pending cases were not verified here.