High Court orders restoration of ad hoc committee to manage WFI affairs

The Delhi High Court on Friday ordered the restoration of the ad hoc committee constituted by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to manage affairs of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI).

In an interim order, the court said the IOA’s decision to dissolve the ad hoc committee was incompatible with the Union Sports Ministry’s order suspending the WFI shortly after the December elections. It said that until the suspension order was recalled, it was necessary for the ad hoc committee to manage the federation’s affairs.

The court, however, turned down the petitioners’ plea to appoint a retired high court or Supreme Court judge as the administrator of WFI, and said it would be open to the IOA to re-constitute the ad hoc committee.

“…It shall be open to IOA to reconstitute the ad hoc committee so as to ensure that the same is a multi-member body comprising of eminent sportsperson/s and/or experts who are well-versed in dealing with the International Federations, so as to allay any concerns that the UWW (United World Wrestling-the world body for the sport) might have as regards the steps taken qua the WFI,” the court said.

The court was hearing a plea by wrestlers Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik and her husband Satyawart Kadian for setting aside and declaring as illegal the elections held to elect the office-bearers of the WFI last year.

The wrestlers, who were at the forefront of last year’s protest at Jantar Mantar demanding the arrest of outgoing WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh for alleged sexual harassment of seven women grapplers, had moved the High Court earlier this year. Their plea also alleged that the WFI is not compliant with the National Sports Development Code, 2011.

READ | WFI to challenge High Court order, says Indian wrestlers’ participation in upcoming Worlds in danger

Sanjay Singh, a Brij Bhushan loyalist, was elected the new WFI chief in the polls held on December 21, 2023.
The Centre had, however, suspended the WFI on December 24, 2023, three days after it elected the new office-bearers, for allegedly not following the provisions of its own constitution while taking decisions and requested the IOA to constitute an ad hoc committee to manage and control its affairs.

In February, UWW lifted the suspension, leading to the IOA also dissolving its ad hoc committee on March 18.
The court said the lifting of the ban by the UWW was “unconnected” with the circumstances set out in the Centre’s suspension order and the consequent formation of the ad hoc committee by the IOA.

The IOA had submitted in court that UWW had issued a warning that if there was any interference with the autonomy of WFI, it would impose a temporary suspension on wrestling federation.

There is no reason, the court said, for the Sports Ministry to “adopt a passive approach which undermines its own orders” and that the “remote possibility of the UWW taking umbrage” should not have prevented it from doing what it must to implement good governance practices consistent with the Sports Code and the law of the land.