Interim President Chintan Parikh of the All India Tennis Association (AITA) has accused court‑appointed administrator Justice (Retd.) Gita Mittal of bias and financial excess ahead of an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) scheduled for Sunday. Parikh alleged that Mittal’s hand‑picked team of four external observers is being paid Rs 12 lakh per day, with an additional Rs 11 lakh requested for her “experts,” and questioned her neutrality, stating, “The administrator’s neutrality is becoming questionable.”
The dispute centres on proposed constitutional amendments intended to bring AITA’s governance in line with the National Sports Governance Act, 2025. Mittal’s draft seeks to reduce each state affiliate’s voting strength from two votes to one, increase representation for Sportspersons of Outstanding Merit, and introduce structural safeguards. The AITA executive committee has accepted several technical suggestions but rejected many of the major governance proposals, arguing that they exceed the Act’s scope and would diminish the role of state associations.
The conflict stems from a legal petition filed by former players Somdev Devvarman and Purav Raja, which led the Delhi High Court on 27 April 2026 to allow the 2024 AITA election results to remain in place temporarily while placing the executive committee under Mittal’s supervision. Both sides have agreed on procedural matters for the EGM, but the substantive disagreements over voting rights and board composition remain unresolved.