Srinagar: The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has admonished the J&K administration for “damaging India’s reputation as a nation” after its failure to grant timely permission prevented Paris Olympics judge Bilquis Mir from officiating at the Canoe Sprint World Cup in Hungary.
Summoning Commissioner Secretary of Sports Shahid Choudhary after the canoeist was denied permission to officiate at the event, a single-judge bench of Justice Rahul Bharti expressed its displeasure at the conduct of the government and directed the bureaucrat to personally appear before the court to explain why the earlier court order for provisional permission to be granted to Mir was not complied with.
Hearing a petition of Indian Kayaking and Canoeing Association and also a contempt petition filed by Mir against Choudhary and Director General of Sports Council as well as the Jammu and Kashmir administration, the court directed Choudhary to appear in person on August 3 before it.
Though Choudhary, a 2009-batch IAS officer, was transferred to Arunachal Pradesh in the first week of July, the advocate representing the Youth Services and Sports Department did not mention this before the court. It was not immediately clear whether the officer had been relieved from his present post.
“This court is afraid that Commissioner/Secretary to government, Youth Services and Sports Department cannot be accorded that much a status of overreaching the cause and the call of the Nation and, thus, this Court is constrained to direct his personal appearance in the Court on 03/08/2026,” the July 28 order, made available on Thursday, said.
The contempt petition was moved by Mir after the Jammu and Kashmir administration failed to implement an order of the high court in May this year directing them to grant her, employed as a government servant, provisional permission to officiate as Chief Finish Line Judge at the Canoe Sprint World Cup held in Hungary that month.
Mir, India’s first female judge for kayaking and canoeing at the 2024 Paris Olympics, could not attend the World Cup event as the permission was not granted in time. The department had informed the court earlier that the permission was not given as the requisite documents were not submitted in prescribed format.
The permission also included her services as head coach for the Indian national team to prepare for the Asian Games 2026.
Tearing apart the reasoning of the Jammu and Kashmir administration which included an official order handed over in June this year to the sportswoman, the court said it is under no iota of doubt that the government order “is at the cost and reputation of the India as a Nation in the matter of representation of Indian Team in the sports of kayaking and canoeing intended and meant to be coached” by Mir “because of her own established sporting credentials as a sportswoman and as a coach”.
In its 10-page order, Justice Bharti said the “tone and tenor” of the government’s June order is “as if it was a routine service-oriented matter…”
Commenting upon the three-page government order passed by Choudhary, the court said it “has not come across even a whisper of line” to show the concern of the author of the order that he was equally cognizant of the fact that Mir’s services were being solicited “for doing service to a national cause for an international purpose”.
Indian Kayaking and Canoeing Federation had also moved an application before the high court for availing services of Mir to be national coach for the camp of Indian team probables to participate in international sporting events which include Asian Games as well as Olympic Games.
The Federation had sent communication to the sports minister of Jammu and Kashmir government requesting for the services of Mir as coach for national team preparation for the Asian Games, 2026.
“The very subject line of the communication should have been sufficient enough for the Minister of Sports…and also for the Youth Service and Sports Department to come with an instant response of relieving Mir from her job engagement as a government servant to serve the cause of the Nation and the national sports for which she is meant to coach the scheduled Indian National Camp,” the order said.
In May 2026, the high court had directed the Commissioner/Secretary to Youth Services and Sports Department and Director General, Directorate of Youth Services and Sports to grant Mir provisional permission to perform her duties as chief coach of Indian National Sports Kayaking and Canoeing for the Asian Games and also permitted her to travel to Hungary to officiate as a judge in the Canoe Sprint World Cup.
The court’s latest order while referring to its May order of granting provisional permission to Mir put a caveat that it allowed her to go “at her own risk and cost and subject to final outcome of this writ petition” and said it should have been sufficient enough a cushion for the government to accord permission.
During this period, the court said, the World Cup event passed without presence and participation of Mir “thereby creating embarrassment for India as a Nation” that its sportsperson/administrator nominated to be a Chief Finish Line Judge failed to attend the event not due to her fault “but for the reason that government/ its officials of Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir were taking time at their leisure to take a timely call.”
The court also noted that if left to the government, it would rather send the Indian team without any coach to the Asian Games.
It also directed the Indian Kayaking and Canoeing Federation to submit the full itinerary of the schedule for which Mir’s services would be required.
