Relief for billiards and snooker body, longest ever cue sports nationals to go on as scheduled

CHENNAI: In a big relief to the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India (BSFI), the Office of the District Registrar of Societies, Bengaluru, withdrew its previous order of staying the national championships scheduled to begin in Bhopal from November 24. The previous order on November 10 had put the federation in a fix with all arrangements being made for what is scheduled to be the longest nationals in the history of cue sports in the country.  

"In view of the above, u/s 25 of the Karnakata Societies Registration Act 1969, the order dated 10.11.2021 issued in respect of staying for conducting the National Championships-2021 of Billiards and Snooker sports from November 24 to December 29 is hereby withdrawn and respondents are allowed to proceed accordingly," read the order issued by SG Manjunath Singh, District Registrar of Societies, 4th Circle, Bengaluru Urban District, Bengaluru on Friday.

Notably, the BSFI for the first time has decided to club the 6-Red snooker competition into the national championships alongside billiards and snooker events thus making it the longest nationals ever held in the country.  

"The main contention of the petitioner was that the federation was going to conduct the extraordinary general meeting out of the headquarters alongside the nationals as against the bylaw provision. However, we informed the authority concerned that the meeting is not being held. Only the nationals under the provisions of bylaws no 2 and 4 of the federation is being held. After we submitted all relevant documents to support our claim, the order dated November 10 was withdrawn," Sunil Bajaj, secretary-general of BSFI, told The New Indian Express.

Meanwhile, the secretary-general also informed that a writ petition has already been filed with the High Court of Karnataka requesting it to quash all the previous orders issued against the federation. "The next hearing is scheduled on Tuesday in the high court. We have also intimated the registrar about it. We hope, the issue will be resolved soon," added Bajaj.