The Delhi High Court on Tuesday set aside the election of Praful Patel, who was last year elected as the president of All India Football Federation (AIFF) for a four-year term, his third successive tenure. The court set aside the elections saying they were held without following the National Sports Code.
It also directed that fresh elections be conducted within a period of five months.
A bench of justices S Ravindra Bhat and Najmi Waziri also appointed former chief election commissioner (CEC) S Y Quraishi as an administrator to look into the functioning of the AIFF.
The court's order came on a plea by advocate Rahul Mehra contending that the elections of the federation were held contrary to the National Sports Code.
Patel, former civil aviation minister, was elected to the post in December last year along with the Executive Committee for the term 2017-2020 after the high court had vacated a stay on elections. Under his leadership, India recently successfully hosted the FIFA U-17 World Cup and set up a record for highest attendance. The country has further formally bid for the U-20 World Cup in 2019.
