Observing that it was “classic example of the apathy being shown to encourage sports in the country”, the Telangana High Court directed the Sports Authority of Telangana to pay compensation to a youngster who was denied of engineering college seat under sports quota.
Justice T. Vinod Kumar of the HC, pronouncing verdict in a writ petition filed by a teenaged chess player challenging denial of engineering seat to him under sports quota, said it was a case of the “sportsmen being subjected to mercy of people at the helm of affairs of the so-called sports authorities”.
The petitioner, M. Shreeshwan of Miyapur in Hyderabad, appeared for TS-EAPCET-2024, secured 15,884 rank and applied for admission in computer science branch of engineering course under sports quota. A chess player, the teenager participated in Asian Youth Chess Championship in 2019 and secured third place while the FIDE awarded him ‘International Master of Chess Champion’. Even the Sports Authority of Telangana felicitated and awarded him one lakh rupees of cash prize.
The Sports Authority and the JNTU decided that the chess player was “not eligible” for admission under sports quota going by the provisions of the different government orders connected to filling up seats under sports quota. The sports authority declaring the student not eligible for sports quota having itself given one lakh rupees cash reward “only goes to show that it lacks basic knowledge of the game”.
The counter affidavits filed by the sports authority and its evaluation and scrutiny committees show they verified documents of the students in a lackadaisical manner without even waiting for clarification from the All India Chess Federation, the Judge said. Time had come to introspect whether assigning the responsibility of selecting eligible candidates for sports quota to “an irresponsible organisation like the Sports Authority”, the Judge said in his order.
The Judge directed the Sports Authority of Telangana to pay compensation to the student since he failed to secure seat because of its failure to select him under sports quota. The compensation should be the differential amount of the fee the student had paid for securing the seat in merit quota.
Published – August 02, 2025 12:23 am IST
