Mumbai: The All India Tennis Association (AITA) held its election on Saturday and had a new set of office-bearers in place, but it will need the Delhi high court’s approval before it can officially declare the names and the new committee can start functioning.

At its AGM held in New Delhi, AITA went ahead with its election after the Delhi HC refused to order a stay on a petition filed by former India players Somdev Devvarman and Purav Raja.

The election was a unanimous affair with only one nomination for each post. It comprised a new president, secretary and treasurer besides eight vice-presidents, four joint secretaries and 10 executive committee members.

The court had asked the result to be placed in a sealed cover by the Election Officer and not to be made public until further orders. The next hearing is on October 14.

“It is over to the court now,” said a top AITA official after the AGM, adding that the current body will run the federation until the court’s verdict.

The petition filed by Devvarman and Raja contended that the federation, and several candidates who were contesting to be in the new executive committee, was in violation of the government’s Sports Code. The court, while refusing to stay the election, warned that it could be set aside.

“If the election process is conducted in defiance of the subsisting directions, office-bearers will be restrained from functioning. Then we will consider appointing someone as the ad hoc (body),” the court had said.

Friction between the current players and the federation has frequently cropped up over the last few years, most recently after India’s recent Davis Cup defeat to Sweden. The players were looking forward to a change in the top management through this election, but with the matter in court, the wait-and-watch phase will only extend.

No-confidence motion withdrawn

A proposed no-confidence motion by eight state associations against current president Anil Jain was withdrawn on Saturday. An Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) had been sought on Friday, ahead of the AGM, to bring up the motion, but the state units decided not to go ahead.

“We had called for the EGM on Saturday morning, but the proposed no-confidence motion had been withdrawn,” said Anil Dhupar, AITA’s current secretary general. “I have no idea why it was withdrawn.”

The state associations that had proposed the no-confidence motion were Assam, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana and Tripura.