Abstract
With the coming of a new era, the deficiency of a domestic sports arbitration body in India has created a lot of challenges for athletes to receive justice impartially and affect their mental health. Presently, the cases are being resolved by the civil courts, Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) abroad. The lack of the dispute resolution mechanism for athlete has therefore led to delayed resolution, usually quite expensive trials, limited accessibility and significant psychological stress. This paper examines not only the justice-related issues but also how they affect the mental health of athletes and their careers. Drawing upon relevant case laws, the delay in adjudication and mental stress were caused because of lack of a sports arbitration body. Focusing on the recent National Sports Governance Bill,2025, playing a huge role in India, and bringing merits and demerits in the bill and old bills for the same. This paper points out the urgent need for a national sports arbitration mechanism, leading to faster dispute resolution and special emphasis on bridging the gap between mental health of athletes and justice for athletes. This paper aims to strengthen India’s sports governance and ensure the protection and well-being of athletes.
Keywords
Sports arbitration body, mental health in sports, athlete rights, National Sports Governance Bill,2025, sports law in India
Introduction
In the case of M.S. Manika Batra v. Table Tennis Federation of India, it became evident that the court-based dispute resolution is unnecessarily lengthy as well as futile. There are many inconveniences caused to athletes due to delayed resolution of the cases. Many bills like National Anti-Doping (Amendment) Bill,2025, and National Sports Governance Bill,2025, have been introduced for the betterment but there are some loopholes too. The lack in sports dispute resolution mechanisms leads to various disputes unresolved or delayed resolution like doping allegations, on-field misconduct, issues in player contracts, etc.
International dispute resolution bodies such as the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), mainly focuses on impartial justice, cost-effective, swift, anti-doping enforcement, etc. In India, there is no sports arbitration body and usually cases are brought in civil courts, ad hoc committees or CAS abroad. This system causes chaos, delay in justice which in return causes prolonged mental stress or agony. Some countries have adopted the sports law, and it has now become an important factor for athletes as they have their own rights when it’s come to sports and their activities or for that matter eligibility criteria. The law is made for proper functioning and smooth execution and if any discrepancy is caused, there is a remedy to it. Same is for sports, the domain of sports requires a codified legal framework. This research paper is also referring to the fact that there are no bodies for dispute resolution, betterment of athletes and most important element is sports law.
The countries like Germany and Australia have their own sports arbitration body and their respective sports law. India is missing out on that factor and in present time it has become crucial part in the country. Many cases face injustice due to this issue like in the case of Chirag Khandal & Ors. v. Equestrian Federation of India & Ors, where it is said that athletes belong to fields not on the passageway of the court and they bring awards and pride to their country hence they should not be subjected to mental agony. The lack of it causes psychological distress and confusion.
The main objective of this paper is to highlight the impact of absence of a sports arbitration body on mental health of the athlete and justice and further to propose some recommendations on it. It dives deep into examining the present situation of dispute resolution mechanism, mental health due to delayed or inaccessible dispute resolution, compare the international bodies with Indian situation and evaluate the role of National Sports Governance Bill, 2025. The scope of the paper is that it will examine case laws, recent developments, international models and mental health impacts. It will not cover any game regulations but will instead concentrate on athlete welfare and governance.
Research Methodology
This research adopts doctrinal methodology. The doctrinal methodology involves primary sources and secondary sources. The primary sources include the Indian case laws, statutes like, National Sports Governance Bill, 2025 and National Anti-Doping (Amendment) Bill, 2025. The secondary sources like commentaries and articles and international practices will be included.
Achint Johri in one of his articles clearly said that recently the eyes have opened to the ignored impact of mental health on athletes in traditional sports. This is also a method to perceive the situation of athletes. Furthermore, in National Library of Medicine (2024), the author stated that after the Covid-19 pandemic, there is a significant impact on mental well-being in the past few years of young athletes. A study showed that athletes who were kept off-field were reported of have heightened level of anxiety and depression. Moreover, a follow-up study after a year showed that the athletes who returned on the field have improved mental health but continued to report higher levels of depression than had been detected before the onset of the pandemic. These articles address the mental well-being of athletes, both during and outside the sporting arena. They accentuate many factors affect the athletes’ psychological well-being whether directly related to the on-field performance or off-field situations like prolonged disputes or governance issue.
Building complete understanding of psychological impact on athletes, this portion briefly discusses about the issues faced by them without any dedicated sports arbitration mechanism in India addressed through judicial decisions. In the case of M.S. Manika Batra v. Table Tennis Federation of India, the defendant was not in the favor of the petitioner to let her participate in the tournament. He also discouraged her during a tournament. She stated that the coach and the federation, both tried to exclude her from international tournaments. The court decided that Committee of Administrators to investigate the allegations put forth. This highlights the fact that there is lack of decisive judicial decision in India. Furthermore, the court is taking a backseat by appointing the committee to do all the work and hence, ensuring a smooth functioning of the federation while the case is pending. The course of events took place with the petitioner, might have caused her mental and emotional distress due the coach and federation. This case demonstrates urgent need for consideration of athletes’ mental health in professional environment. This case also brings light on the urgent need of sports arbitration body and law related to it. In Chirag Khandal & Ors. v. Equestrian Federation of India & Ors ,the unfairness in the selection process may have had severe impression on mental well-being of athletes. The selection policies and federations’ governance are both in question in this case. In Rahul Mehra v. Union Of India, the conclusion drawn was that sports administration in India must be implemented fully and effectively. Governmental monitoring of compliances is mandatory and partial or selective monitoring will only lead citizens to seek judicial review for the same. The court also concluded that it is confusing for them as nearly the entire money and infrastructural support is provided by the Governments. The people who mis-manage the sports bodies still dare the Government and the courts that if they try to eradicate mismanagement for sports association, the country will suffer derecognition and the Indian sportsmen would not be able to represent their country in future in further competitions. These cases emphasize on the pressing issue of lack of sports dispute resolution body and the consequences related to it such as selection criteria, eligibility criteria, mental health and many more.
Collectively, these judicial interventions highlight two top-priorities: (a) the absence of dedicated sport dispute resolution mechanism which has resulted in over burdening with the sport related cases, (2) the prolonged litigation and governance related problems affect athletes’’ mental health, performance and opportunities. India has recognized the problems faced due to mismanagement or poor governance of the sport associations or bodies by athletes but still chose to ignore or refrain from taking any step for their benefit like a sport dispute resolution body and sports law and hence, creating a legal gap.
Unlike India, many countries have their own sports dispute resolution mechanisms where athletes are not forced to go constitutional courts. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland has developed as the global body for resolving disputes within the sports community. Similarly, Australia’s National Sports Tribunal and Canada’s Sport Dispute Resolution Centre have their own set of rules and manage the disputes in their respective dispute resolution centers. These symbolize that they not only safeguard the rights of athletes but also think about their welfare and mental health due to prolonged litigation.
India’s recent contribution to sports such as the National Sports Governance Bill, 2025 and the National Anti-Doping (Amendment) Bill, 2025. However, with no arbitration body, they may fall short of effective implementation. The National Sports Governance Bill,2025 have some points where it is talking about of establishing “National Sports Tribunal” in Chapter XI, which is a step closer to reform the system and it also talked about code of ethics in Chapter V and safe sports policy and grievance redressal in Chapter VI. This may give transparency to the system presented in this bill. The National Anti-Doping (Amendment) Bill, 2025 has been introduced to make amendments in the National Anti-Doping Act, 2022. It prohibits doping in sports and provides the framework for testing, enforcements and adjudication of violations. It establishes the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) and the National Board for Anti-Doping in Sports. The agency is to execute anti-doping rules and the board to advise the Central Government on regulations regarding anti-doping. Though these two bills were introduced, the permanent body for dispute resolution has not been discussed in it and without the body, cases will go to the courts which will eventually lead to delay causing psychological harm in the form of stress. Hence, these efforts will gradually go to vain when there will be no establishment of a permanent sport dispute resolution center.
Thus, the doctrinal research methodology deepens the theoretical understanding about the legal gaps, while simultaneously conveying the psychological impact of such gaps in athletes.
Review Of Literature
The literature is on governance of sports and athletes’ welfare in combination with the legal frameworks and dispute resolution mechanism which also involves mental health of athletes. However, most of the works do not deal with all of them. They instead focus on single phenomena like dispute resolution center, sports law or mental well-being of athletes but never on all of them inter-related. This section will mainly focus on international and national scholarship which this study aims to address.
In the overview report of CAS, 2023, IOC released the Framework in which it was clearly mentioned that the eligibility criteria play an important role in fairness particularly in high level organized sport in women’s category. They also said eligibility rules should be based on ethical, credible and peer reviewed research. World Anti-doping Code (WADC) 2021 has human rights enshrined including fair hearings. At UEFA, all work on human rights is led by the UEFA Football and Social Responsibility division, which have identified the of 11 policies of acute importance. Seven of them are linked to human rights such as anti-racism, refugee support, child and youth protection, equality and inclusion, football for all abilities, health and well-being, solidarity and rights. Here “health and well-being” are referred to as physical as well as mental health of athletes.
Together these international governance gives the framework of how fairness, human rights, criteria and mental health are significant. Unlike India, where these concepts are worthless as there is no sport dispute resolution body which leaves athletes to pursue the constitutional courts for remedies often at the cost of athletes’ mental health.
Former Indian cricketer criticized the BCCI’s decision of not allowing families to go with them on international tours which are of two months. He claimed that family being around during the season of tournaments, it is quite assuring that they are with them and providing them emotional support especially in tough phases as it affects mental health. The National Human Rights. Commission (NHRC), India, organized an open house discussion on ‘Sports and Human Rights: Safeguarding the Rights and Well-being of Sportspersons’ where they proposed to address athletes’ mental health. One of the suggestions that emerged was that there should be coaches trained in clinical psychology to prepare the athletes better. It shows that India is suggesting or recommending not implementing them.
Author said that many athletes who play elite sport may or may not get success. It takes lot of training in physical and mental perspective. They may face rejections, discrimination or abuse. To endure all of this, may destroy their mental health.
In the above survey, it is quite clear that international scholarship is serious about the health of athletes of both physical as well as mental. They took evident steps towards strengthen and protect athletes’ mental health, governance and dispute resolution mechanism. On these grounds, Indian literature falls short. Some works only talked about the governance or sports law separately while other works focused on mental health. Very few studies examine how the lack of a specialized dispute resolution mechanism in India directly impacts athletes’ psychological well-being. This gap is what this study seeks to address the intersection of sport dispute resolution mechanism, mental health of athletes and governance in the Indian context.
Method
This research is primarily doctrinal in nature, relying on primary and secondary sources to investigate the absence of sport dispute resolution mechanism in india and its importance on athletes’ mental health and justice.
Statutes such as National Sports Governance Bill, 2025 and National Anti-Doping (Amendment) Bill, 2025. Judicial pronouncements including Rahul Mehra v. Union of India and M.S. Manika Batra v. Table Tennis Federation of India were studied. International frameworks such as Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), specialized sport dispute resolution mechanism like in Germany and Australia and UEFA’s human rights policies have also been discussed briefly. Articles, journals, policy reports and official websites have been thoroughly studied for the paper. This is done to draw attention of the need of sport dispute resolution body, with defined sports law considering athletes’ mental health and justice. Scholarly articles and reports from bodies such as the National Human Rights Commission have also been reviewed.
The method develops a holistic understanding of how this study evolve considering governance gaps affect both justice delivery and psychological well-being of athletes. The chosen method ensures that the research is grounded in legal analysis which also addressing the interdisciplinary concerns of mental health and justice. It studies the international framework and their governance criteria and existing system of resolution in India being burdensome and exhausting, both physical and mental, for the sportsperson.
Suggestions
The analysis of existing legal frameworks reveals shortcomings in the justice delivery, cost, governance, authorities which lead to further mental distress and disturbance. There are gaps which delay the whole process and has negative impact on athletes. To ensure justice is delivered fairly and on time, here are few suggestions:
- Establishment of National Sports Arbitration Tribunal body: A specialized arbitration body will ensure justice on time and lower the burden on the constitutional courts. It should be able to resolve domestic disputes. It also should be cost-effective and aims to reduce prolonged litigation.
- Mental Health Counsellors or Therapists: Every sport dispute should have moral support from mental health or counsellors so that they can deal with proceedings. The details shared by them should be confidential unless it is an important factor where it changes the course of action.
- Time Bound Resolution: The dispute should be resolved within 120 days. Fast track benches should be established for selection criteria, doping, sexual and gender related issues.
- Transparency and Accessibility: There should transparency in the system so that anyone can access the arbitration mechanism easily regardless of their background.
- Some laws and regulations should be adapted from international frameworks like World Anti-Doping Code (2021).
These few suggestions should be implemented as it will strengthen the governance, and safeguard mental health and provide justice on time.
Conclusion
This study underscores the significant gap between sport dispute resolution body and mental health with justice. Relying on the constitutional courts resulted in prolonged litigation, lack of remedies, no specialized knowledge on sports, mental distress, all these factors increased tension in the minds of athletes. The sport-related disputes put a burden on the courts and hence leads to many stacks of piled-up cases.
The international framework like the Court of Arbitration for Sport, ensures a speedy, and athlete- centric approach. However, in India, the system is complicated, clustered, and no defined sports law.
Therefore, the establishment of a sports arbitration tribunal in India is necessary. This body should align with the international institutions that offers transparency, accessibility, criteria, and is affordable. The system should be sensitive towards sportsmen and their special needs and hence, promote the welfare of athletes.
The Indian system should change the way of dealing with sport dispute and rather focus on athletes’ rights and welfare. There should be equal treatment like everyone else, be it physical or mantal health issues. The reform is to be made regarding the absence of an arbitration body considering mental health and the justice of athletes.
Author: Parkhi Singh, School of Law of Banaras Hindu University