HC slams sports authority for denying chess prodigy engineering admission, orders compensation

Time of India

4 days ago

Hyderabad: Justice T Vinod Kumar of the Telangana high court came down heavily on the Sports Authority of Telangana (SATG) for its 'apathy and inefficiency' in denying engineering admission to 18-year-old chess prodigy Sreeshwan Maralakshikari under the sports quota.
The court directed the state to compensate Sreeshwan for the academic and financial losses he suffered due to the arbitrary rejection of his application.
Sreeshwan, an International Master in chess, won a bronze medal at the World Youth Chess Championship and gold at the Asian Youth Chess Championship, both in 2019. Despite these internationally recognised achievements, his application under GO No. 2 (sports quota) was wrongly rejected as "not eligible" for engineering admissions.
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The high court found that SATG and JNTU Hyderabad dismissed his application without verifying the authenticity of his certificates, even though they had been validated by the All India Chess Federation (AICF). The court observed that basic due diligence was completely ignored.
Justice Vinod Kumar exposed the lack of expertise within SATG's scrutiny committee, criticising its 'lackadaisical approach' and failure to understand even basic terminology in chess.
The committee mistook 'open tournament' (mixed gender) for 'open category' (unauthorised events) and thereby invalidated his achievements.
The court also pointed out the absurd contradiction in SATG's actions — the same body had felicitated Sreeshwan with a Rs 1 lakh cash award in 2019, but later dismissed his credentials as ineligible for sports quota admission.
Calling the case a 'classic example of bureaucratic apathy,' Justice Vinod Kumar warned that such treatment of young athletes could discourage sporting talent and hamper India's sports development.
"This is a classic case of apathy towards sports promotion. Authorities play with the lives of young athletes. How can SATG felicitate a player with Rs 1 lakh and later reject his certificates as 'invalid'? This reflects sheer ignorance," the judge said.
Rushed and unfair process
The court found procedural lapses, observing that SATG released the sports quota priority list before seeking clarification from the AICF.
Had they waited, Sreeshwan would have topped the list based on merit, it said.
Since the academic year is already underway, the court directed JNTU to accommodate Sreeshwan in his preferred computer science branch, either by creating an additional seat or by adjusting him into existing vacancies for the current year.
Additionally, SATG must compensate Sreeshwan for the difference in tuition fees between his current college and the preferred institution and transportation costs incurred.
The student has two weeks to submit fee-related documents, following which SATG must release the compensation within four weeks. The court also directed JNTU to ensure his transfer to a better-ranked college by the second year of his B Tech course.