The High Court of Punjab and Haryana has issued a notice to the All India Football Federation invalidating Tanner Whitehouse 3 (TW3) Bone-Age determination guidelines used by the FA last season in its junior-level tournaments.
Chief Justice Krishna Murari, in a notice, sent to the AIFF, stated that the TW3 tests were inconclusive and can be used only when no other age proof is available.
The decision of the High Court to issue a notice comes as Tushar Chaudhary, a U-13 Minerva Punjab player, along with his parents, challenged the guidelines in the court after he was denied a chance to play in the 2018-19 Sub Junior League which had a prescribed bone-age limit of 14.4.
The TW3 method uses X-Rays of the left hand and wrist to examine the skeletal maturity of a person and thereby determine their bone age. The bone age obtained from the result of this test was then sole criterion to determine players' eligibility in age-group tournaments, as opposed to chronological age which was the yardstick until the 2017-18 season.
The All India Football Federation (AIFF), in its executive committee meeting earlier this month, had decided to exempt teams playing in state-level tournaments and national championships from the Tanner Whitehouse 3 (TW3) age verification criteria for a year.
Although the state teams will now no longer use the TW3 method for a year, professional clubs taking part in the Indian age-group leagues (Junior, Sub-Junior and Elite Leagues) conducted by AIFF will have to continue the existing arrangement until the guidelines are changed. It must be noted that national teams also use MRI scans instead of the TW3 method.
The new method was criticised by several clubs and AIFF officials, including Executive Committee member Anjali Shah. In January this year, as many as 16 clubs in Mumbai alone had come together in an effort to let both the state association and the Indian FA know their concerns.