Boxing Federation Likely To Reconsider Players Selected For World Championships: Delhi High Court Told In Arundhati Choudhary's Plea

The Delhi High Court today deferred the hearing of boxer Arundhati Choudhary's plea who has challenged the decision of the Boxing Federation of India (BFI), not selecting her for the upcoming Women's World Boxing Championships.

This was after the BFI counsel informed the Court that the Championship, which was otherwise scheduled to be held in Istanbul from December 4 to 18, has now been postponed till March 2022, on account of impending threat of Covid-19.

"The impugned decision was taken in view of the fact that the Championship is in December. Since the same has been postponed, the decision whereby BFI did not select the Petitioner may be recalled," the counsel submitted.

Hearing this, Justice Rekha Palli, who was of the view that "a lot has to be said" about the manner in which sportsperson are being treated in the country, granted some time to the national sports body to come to a final conclusion.

The Bench was hearing an application for impleadment of Lovlina Borgohain, an Olympic bronze winner who was selected for the Championship by BFI.

"Before the application was taken up, counsel for Respondent no. 1 (BFI) submits that the cause for filing this writ petition was non-inclusion of Petitioner's name in sportspersons selected to participate in Women's World Boxing Championship to be held at Istanbul from December 4. The said Championship is now postponed and  is likely to be held in March 2022, and therefore the Respondent is likely to take a decision in one week as to whether its earlier decision to exclude Petitioner will continue or whether a fresh decision will be taken. In light of this sand of the Respondent, no orders are called for in the present application," the Court said while keeping the application pending. 

The counsel for Respondent has sought 2 weeks' time to seek instructions in the matter.

Accordingly, the case is now listed for hearing on December 7.

Choudhary, who claims to be an International boxing champion, has approached the Court seeking a direction on the Respondents to consider her candidature in the 70 Kg category for the event. Her counsel submitted that in the light of her excellent record of holding a gold medal in the recent women championship in Hisar, she ought to have been preferred over any other player.

Earlier, the Court expressed its dissatisfaction over the functioning of various sports federations and the regular cases by way of which various players had approached the Court recently, highlighting their grievances.

"The more I hear these matters, I am getting the feeling that till the time player is not going to bow down to them, they will not hear the player. Everyday I'm seeing this," Justice Palli had told Advocate Apoorv Kurup appearing for the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.

"This is a rot which needs to be set right," ASG Chetan Sharma today remarked.

Case Title: Arundhati Choudhary v. BFI