Delhi High Court on Friday restored the 2023 mandate of the ad-hoc committee, appointed by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), to manage the daily affairs of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI).
The court’s direction was in response to an application filed by wrestlers Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat and others in February this year seeking a stay on the functioning and operations of WFI, following the abuse allegations against the federation’s leadership.
A bench of Justice Sachin Dutta further noted the dissolution of the ad-hoc committee by IOA as unwarranted in the first place. The court deemed the dissolution incompatible with the Centre’s order, dated December 24, 2023, in which the newly elected executive committee of the WFI had been instructed to abstain from administering and managing the day-to-day activities of the federation.
“Since this court has concluded that the dissolution of the ad-hoc committee was unwarranted, it restores the mandate of the ad-hoc committee appointed by the IOA vide order dated 27.12.2023,” the bench stated.
It also listed numerous other reasons to discredit the dissolution. One, for starters, was that the order from last year mandating the committee had not been revisited or recalled by the court.
Another being that the reasons behind forming the committee – the abuse allegations made by Indian wrestlers against the WFI – were still unresolved.
The court has delegated the reconstitution of the ad-hoc committee to the IOA to ensure the committee is a multi-member body consisting of sportspersons and experts well-versed in dealing with international organisations. This is to allay any concerns that the United World Wrestling (UWW) might have regarding WFI.
The court further clarified that the ad-hoc committee will continue to function only till December 24, 2024, as issued by the Sports Ministry.
It will be open to the Union Ministry to withdraw or review the order, the court said, adding that the order will not be construed as imposing any limitations or constraints.
This court also observed that disapproval by the UWW cannot afford any valid justification in constituting an ad-hoc committee.
Since the Paris Olympic Games 2024 is already over, the court added, the Union Ministry shouldn’t feel constrained in taking or implementing decisions regarding whether the suspension of WFI is still warranted and if there needs to be an ad-hoc committee for managing the affairs of WFI.
The request made by the wrestlers to have a retired judge of the High Court or the Supreme Court be appointed as the administrator of the committee was rejected by the High Court, noting that it seemed appropriate to have a multi-member committee..
The order was reserved earlier this year in May, and the case was recently mentioned before the court stating that the order would be pronounced soon. The application was filed in the wrestlers’ writ petition against elections conducted for WFI in December 2023 asking the results to be declared illegal.
The petition is still pending in court.
