In a significant ruling, the Orissa High Court on Tuesday directed the Union Government and the Hockey India to allow the Hockey Odisha to participate in the upcoming Senior National (‘A’ Division) Hockey Championships for men and women.
While the Men’s Championship will be held at Jhansi from January 25, the women’s event will be held at Kolam from January 30, informed Hockey Odisha general secretary Pratap Satapathy here.
The Hockey India had last week debarred 10 State teams, including Odisha’s, from participating in the championships on the ground that they had not updated the details of the team members online in the website of the Hockey India one month before the beginning of the events.
The Hockey Odisha had sought some more time from to furnish the details.
But when the request was not yielded, the Hockey Odisha had approached the High Court challenging the action of the Hockey India stating that it was practically not possible to select the team before one month of the championships. Similarly, the details like shoe size of the players, their heights, weights, remarkable marks on the players’ bodies, as sought by the Hockey India, were not readily available.
Allowing the writ, Justice KR Mohapatra in an interim direction asked the Union Government and the Hockey India to allow the teams to participate in the championships, Satapathy informed, adding that Hockey Odisha has already selected the teams.