Anti-doping amendment bill tabled in Lok Sabha by Mansukh Mandaviya

New Delhi: Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Wednesday tabled the National Anti-Doping (Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha, providing greater "operational independence" to the country's Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) as prescribed by WADA.

The contentious National Board for Anti-Doping in Sports has been retained but it would no longer have the NADA appeals panel under its jurisdiction as was the case in the original act passed in 2022.

That act could not be implemented as WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) objected to "government interference" in the NADA's functioning.

"The National Anti-Doping (Amendment) Bill, 2025, seeks to enhance institutional and operational independence of the National Anti-Doping Appeal Panel and the National Anti-Doping Agency to ensure autonomy in their decisions pertaining to operations, investigations and enforcement activities," stated the bill's objectives.

The Board was previously empowered to constitute the appeal panel and "oversee the activities" of NADA. This provision has been done away with in the amended bill which asserts NADA's autonomy.

"The Director General or any other staff member of the Agency shall have operational independence from any National Sports Federation, International Federation, National Olympic Committee, National Paralympic Committee or any Government department or agency with responsibility for sport or anti-doping," the amended bill states.

A day before the bill's introduction, a sports ministry source had told PTI that amendments were necessary to ensure that India does not end up being suspended by WADA.

"If we had implemented the 2022 act, it would have invited a ban from WADA. Our lab would have been derecognised. So, the changes were necessary," the source had said.