BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court constituted a one man commission headed by former judge of Supreme Court RV Raveendran to conduct inquiry into the alleged violation of selection norms by the Selection Committee of Surfing Federation of India (SFI) for men’s surfing competition in the ensuing Asian Games to be held in Japan from September 19 to October 4.
Justice Suraj Govindaraj passed the order while partly allowing the petition filed by Ramesh Budihal from Kerala, a Bronze medalist at the Asian Surfing Championship 2025, challenging the legality of the process of selection dated June 23, 2026 in which he was selected as first reserved athlete and other surfer Sivaraj Babu from TN was selected as the second confirmed athlete.
Considering the advanced stage of the Asian Games arrangements and the possible prejudice to India’s participation if the present selection is disturbed, the court declines to quash the selection or recall the names already forwarded. Instead, the court said, an independent fact-finding inquiry shall be conducted into how the special selection committee and the executive council proceeded with the selection.
The court stated that the inquiry is in the nature of a fact-finding and advisory exercise and no finding recorded in this order shall be treated as a pre-determination of its outcome, and nothing in this order or in the inquiry shall be read as a finding on the comparative sporting merit of Budihal and Babu. The inquiry report may be submitted by February 1, 2027, to the high court.