WFI Elections | Punjab & Haryana High Court Seeks Centre's Response On Plea Of Sangeeta Phogat, Others To Set Aside Executive Committee Poll

The Punjab & Haryana High Court has sought response from the Central Government on a plea filed by Wrestling Player Sangeeta Phogat and others to set aside the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI)'s executive committee election held in December 2023.

The plea states that the executive committee elections are in violation of the Constitution of the Federation, National Sports Development Code of India, 2011, and Delhi High Court's ruling in Rahul Mehra v. Union of India and Ors.

While issuing notice to the Union of India, Indian Olympics Association, WFI, and Sanjay Kumar Singh, Suspended President, WFI, Justice Vinod S. Bhardwaj listed the matter for April 02.

In December 2023 the Union of India suspended the Executive Committee of WFI for violating the WFI Constitution as well as the Sports Code of 2011 with a direction to the suspended body to abstain from administering and managing day-to-day activities of the Federation with immediate effect, the plea submits.

The petition alleges that the suspended EC of WFI is not leaving the management and day-to-day affairs of the Federation and is parallelly holding selection trials for upcoming International events along with the selection trials organized by the Ad-hoc Committee of WFI. 

The petitioners submitted that they were constrained to approach the High Court as the WFI's suspended executive committee was organizing parallel selection trials on the WFI letterhead on March 10 and 11, simultaneously with the selection trials organized by the WFI ad-hoc committee for the same dates for upcoming senior Asian Wrestling Championships and Asian OG Qualifier Wrestling Tournaments.

Title: Sangeeta Phogat & Ors. v. UOI & Ors.

Counsel for the petitioners: Narender Singh