The suspended female athletes — Mandeep Kaur, A.C. Ashwini, Sini Jose, Jauna Murmu, Priyanka Panwar and Tiana Mary Thomas — have filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court seeking the quashing of the decision of the National Anti-Doping Appeal panel (NADAP) which earlier this month upheld the verdict of the disciplinary panel to impose one-year suspensions on four of them.
The petition, filed on Wednesday, also seeks a directive to the Union Government to allow the suspended athletes training facilities in their preparations for the Olympic Games, and a ruling that the “petitioners are entitled to take part in the Olympic Games irrespective of IAAF Rule 40.12.”
The six were suspended for one year for anti-doping rule violations last December. That decision was upheld following an appeal by the athletes (excluding ‘international-level' athletes Mandeep and Murmu) and a counter appeal by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), seeking enhancement of suspension, by the NADAP, headed by Justice C.K. Mahajan (retd.) on March 17 last.
The petition has named the Union Government, WADA, NADAP and the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) as the respondents.
