New Delhi: anned Indian hockey midfielder Gurbaj Singh has reasons to be optimistic that the nine-month ban for ‘indiscipline’ imposed on him by Hockey India (HI) could be lifted by the High Court.
Having dragged HI to court after his appeal against the ban was dismissed by the Narinder Batra-led federation, the Punjab and Chandigarh High Court on Wednesday questioned HI's reasons for a blanket ban when no such provision is provided in the federation's code of conduct governing the players.
The court even raised concerns if somebody in Hockey India was personally against Gurbaj and trying to destroy his flourishing career. The right-half has represented India in more than 200 matches.
Gurbaj, who has always maintained that the allegations of 'misbehavior', 'indiscipline' and 'groupism' against him are baseless, was present in the court when the two sides presented their arguments in front of the bench of Justice RK Jain.
The court agreed with Gurbaj's attorney Puran Singh Hundal's argument that there was no such provision in the code of conduct to impose a ban of nine months for misbehavior, which, in any case, Gurbaj denies.
"Show where is the provision for such a ban for these allegations. There is no such punishment in the rules," Justice Jain questioned HI. "Punishment must commensurate with the offence...You are banning him for complaining about food?" the court further asked before reserving the order, which is expected to be out soon.
Reportedly former India assistant coach Jude Felix, in his report before resigning following the FIH World League Semi-finals in Belgium earlier this year, had said that Gurbaj doesn't give him the same respect as others.
It has been learnt that the report includes allegations such as not wishing the coaches and making unnecessary complaints.
Gurbaj told IBNLive that if he said the "food is not good" at one of the facilities team stayed in, it doesn't qualify to be labelled as misbehavior or indiscipline. And the court seemed to agree with the player's viewpoint.
Hockey India, however, maintained that Gurbaj should have appealed to the Hockey India Congress instead and also questioned the jurisdiction of the Punjab and Haryana HC to hear the case – being out of Delhi.
Gurbaj had filed a civil writ petition on October 6.
After the appeal, Hundal sounded confident of the verdict being in Gurbaj's favour.
"The court questioned the ban since nowhere in the code of conduct a blanket ban of 9 month has been mentioned for the said charges. At most, a player can be suspended for 4-5 matches," Hundal said.
"I am pretty confident that the ban will be lifted, but we have to wait for the verdict," he added.
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