Justice (retd.) Gita Mittal asks Delhi High Court to implead AITA Trust and DLTA

On September 14 Justice (retd.) Gita Mittal, the Delhi High Court-appointed administrator to the All India Tennis Association (AITA), filed a report asking the Delhi High Court to implead the AITA Trust and the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association (DLTA) in the ongoing proceedings to amend AITA’s Constitution in line with the National Sports Governance Act and to hold fresh elections.

The report, submitted after an Extraordinary General Meeting ratified AITA’s new Constitution on July 26, described impleading the Trust and the DLTA as necessary under her court-mandated “obligation to supervise the financial affairs of AITA” and because the AITA had “assigned and abdicated all its functions, properties and income to the AITA Trust”. Justice Mittal said efforts to obtain AITA’s financial records had so far proved unsuccessful and attached a June 30 letter from Anil Dhupar, secretary of the AITA Trust, in which he asserted the Trust was an independent body and that the request was beyond the Court’s mandate.

A July 25 report in The Hindu, cited by the administrator, flagged the transfer of responsibilities from the elected, non-profit AITA to the AITA Trust, noted multiple conflicts of interest where the same officials held positions across AITA, the AITA Trust and the DLTA, and described a dispute over rental income worth nearly ₹40 crore from office premises at the R.K. Khanna Stadium in Delhi.

In her report Justice Mittal said the rent dispute prima facie indicated “misappropriation of land and defalcation of funds, which were intended only for the interest of the game and have been surreptitiously diverted to private persons utilizing the shield of a legal entity in the nature of a Trust”.

The DLTA has been led for nearly a decade by Rohit Rajpal, who is India’s current Davis Cup captain and a vice-president at the AITA; Rajpal was the treasurer of the AITA Trust during the rent dispute before resigning on June 13, 2026. Rajpal has announced his candidature for the AITA presidency, where Leander Paes is expected to be a contender.

Fresh elections under the new Constitution were to be held by September 30, but the interim AITA committee has sought an extension to that timeline. The report notes that the International Tennis Federation (ITF) generally disapproves of ad-hoc bodies being in charge for extended periods, and emails from The Hindu requesting comment from the ITF received no response.

The Delhi High Court is scheduled to hear the matter again on September 25.