[1] Born in Kerala, Kumar grew up in a village that was very passionate about football.
[2] Eventually though, due to injury and financial problems, Kumar had to give up playing football, instead, focusing on refereeing the game.
[3] Kumar started to referee matches at the local and regional levels but also took up other jobs in order to pay his bills after passing his exam.
Srikrishna and Pratap Singh, would become professional referees with the All India Football Federation and thus would earn more money than before.
[3] On 13 February 2015, it was announced that Kumar had won the award for the AIFF Best Referee of the Year for 2014.