Report No. 275

D. Report of the Working Group for Drafting of the National Sports Development Bill 2013

2.13 To look into the issue of transparency and good governance in National Sports Federations (NSFs),Ministry of Sports established a working group under the chairmanship of Justice (Retd.) Mukul Mudgal. The group also comprised of various sports administrators, legal experts, and eminent sportspersons like Abhinav Bindra and former India hockey skipper Viren Rasquinha. The group prepared and submitted a draft bill titled the 'National Sports Development Bill, 2013' to the Ministry in the July 2013.

2.14 This draft Bill made various suggestions including setting up of an Appellate Sports Tribunal and a Sports Election Commission; however, noteworthy from the context of this Report was the proposed Chapter IX 'Applicability of Right to Information Act, 2005'; which inter alia provided for all the National Sports Federations to be deemed to be public authorities under section 2(h) of RTI Act, 2005, requiring them to perform their duties and discharge their functions in terms of the said Act.