The Sports Governance Act takes effect

On 1 January 2026, Indian sports administration moved from guidelines to law. Select provisions of the National Sports Governance Act, 2025, came into force on that date, following the Act's notification in the Official Gazette on 18 August 2025 and a commencement notification of 31 December 2025. The Act, numbered 25 of 2025, replaces decades of executive guidelines, principally the 2011 National Sports Development Code, with a statutory framework, and its stated aims are transparency, accountability, ethical practices, and good governance in sports administration, the welfare of sportspersons, and effective and timely resolution of sports-related disputes, in consonance with the Olympic and Paralympic Charters.

The provisions brought into force establish the governance framework for National Sports Bodies, including the National Olympic Committee, the National Paralympic Committee, National Sports Federations, and Regional Sports Federations. They provide for the constitution of the National Sports Board, a three-member body empowered to grant affiliations, monitor finances, decide funding eligibility, and take action against misconduct, and for the National Sports Tribunal, a specialised body to resolve sports disputes, including athlete grievances, doping matters, and federation conflicts, faster than ordinary courts. They also cover compliance requirements for recognised sports organisations, their privileges and duties, and the central government's rule-making powers.

The reforms inside the framework are specific. Once elections are conducted under the new law, all federations and committees must have executive committees of no more than 15 members, including at least two Sportspersons of Merit, and the original bill mandated that at least 25 per cent of federation executives be former athletes. The Sports Ministry allowed federations with upcoming elections to postpone them until December 2026 to align with full implementation, and elections under the Act will follow after that transition. The National Sports Board's members face an age cap of 65 years with one re-appointment, and tribunal members hold office for four years with an age cap of 67 years, according to implementation rules shared for public feedback in October 2025.

One controversy followed the Act from its passage. The bill as introduced in the Lok Sabha on 25 July 2025 would have brought all recognised sports bodies, including the Board of Control for Cricket in India, under the Right to Information Act, but the version passed by the Rajya Sabha on 13 August 2025 exempted the BCCI from RTI unless it receives direct government funds. The phased commencement is deliberate: it aims for a smooth transition rather than an overnight overhaul. Whether the Act changes Indian sport will depend less on its text than on whether the Board and Tribunal are staffed, funded, and allowed to act against powerful federations.