What's Brewing

‘Doping’ means consumption of certain drugs and chemical substances by athletes and sportsmen to artificially enhance their stamina and physical endurance levels for gaining unfair advantage in competitive sports /sporting events. 

Doping is banned under the ‘International Convention Against Doping in Sport’ which was adopted by more than 140 United Nations member countries including ours during a United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organisation [UNESCO] conference, in October 2005.

World Anti-Doping Agency [WADA] is an international organisation co-founded by the above nations along with International Olympic Committee [IOC] to promote, coordinate, and monitor the fight against drugs in sports. The provisions of the World Anti-Doping Code [Code] have been adopted by more than 650 sports organisations including the International Paralympic Committee [IPC]. 

In India, The National Anti-Doping Act [Act] was enacted in 2022, under which:

1. National Anti-Doping Agency [NADA] which functioned earlier as a society has been transformed into a corporate body, headed by a Director General [DG], to adopt and implement the rules and policies periodically made by WADA. 
2. National Board for Anti-Doping in Sports [Board] has been formed to oversee activities of NADA and advise the central government on anti-doping regulations. 
3. Anti-Doping Rules [Rules] and the various forms of Violations of these rules have been framed. 
4. Disciplinary Panel has been constituted by the Board for determining the consequences of all Violations of the Rules, comprising: Chairperson and Vice-Chairpersons who are legal practitioners and members from the medical and sports professions.    
5. Appeals Panel has also been constituted by the Board, for hearing appeals under this Act, with an organisational structure similar to Disciplinary Panel. 
6. Committees have been constituted by NADA for functions such as: Therapeutic Use Exemption, Investigation, Sample Collection and Testing, Result Management and Education. 
7. Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) is the exemption granted under Rules in cases relating to ailing athletes using medication prescribed by doctor for treatment of the ailment, even if such medication is in the list of prohibited substances under the Code.             
8. Procedures have been established for identifying, testing, verifying and controlling all Violations, including setting up or appointing/designating National Anti-Doping Test Laboratories [Labs].
9. Athletes shall submit to designated Labs samples of urine and blood within the stipulated time as and when demanded by NADA for purpose of testing for presence of prohibited substances in the samples. Refusal or delay in submitting samples by athlete will be construed as violation of Rules.

2025 Amendment Bill 
On 23rd July 2025, a bill seeking to make amendments in the 2022 Act was introduced in Lok Sabha by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports by the title of  “The National Anti-Doping (Amendment) Bill 2025” [Bill].

Salient features of the Bill      

• The power of constituting an Appeals Panel, hitherto with the Board, has now been vested in the Central government. There is, however, no change in the composition or selection criteria for Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson and members of the panel.
• The DG and members of NADA will now enjoy operational independence from all other sports bodies, government agencies and departments entrusted with doping control under this Act.
• When NADA receives from a Lab an adverse report showing presence of prohibited substance in the samples, it shall first check not only for the applicability of USE, as already stipulated in the Act, but additionally for any departure from testing standards of the International Standard for Laboratories or International Standard for Testing, besides the investigation procedures as prescribed by NADA. 
• Where the concerned athlete could directly appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland [CAS] against decisions of Appeal Panel in the Act, the Bill entrusts the authority to make such appeals only to international sports bodies such as: WADA, IOC, IPC and concerned International Federations. In cases of international athletes, however, appeals to CAS can be made directly by the affected athlete.  
• Besides the Board, NADA and Labs already included in the Act, the Bill now includes Appeal Panel in the list of recipients of Central government funds for their administrative and operational requirements.  
• The Bill makes it mandatory for accreditation by WADA for all Labs established or designated by Central government for Anti-Doping testing as well as for research in doping science.
• The scope of ‘Anti-Doping Organisations’ has been widened to include: WADA, signatories to the Code, IOC, IPC, other International Federations and major national and international sport events organisations.
• In the Bill, a separate Schedule has now been introduced which lists out and specifies the various Violations of the Rules. These Violations include, but not limited to:

1. Presence of any prohibited substance, its metabolite (intermediate/end product of metabolism) or its marker (an indicator), irrespective of the reason for the presence.
2. Use or Attempted Use of any prohibited substance or prohibited method, as established by reliable means such as confession, witness statement, documentary evidence, results from the analysis of  Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) of more than one sample.
3. Evasion or Refusal by athlete to submit sample to the designated sample collector. 
4. Whereabouts Failures which includes: (a) Filing Failure i.e. athlete’s location is not furnished to the ‘Athletics Integrity Unit’ or details furnished are either not updated or not sufficient for the Unit to access the athlete within the stipulated deadline for taking samples (b) Missed Test i.e. athlete not available at declared location for collecting samples within the stipulated deadline.
5. Tampering or Attempted Tampering by the athlete with any part of the Doping Control process.
6. Trafficking or Attempted Trafficking by the athlete or his support personnel including parents.

Present Status of the Bill: The Bill has been passed by Lok Sabha on 11th August 2025 and by Rajya Sabha on 12th August 2025. The Bill awaits the Presidential assent.

For full text of the Bill:
https://prsindia.org/billtrack/the-national-anti-doping-amendment-bill-2025