CHENNAI : Continuing their legal battle against the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), the protesting wrestlers, including Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist Bajrang Punia, filed an urgent application in the High Court of Delhi praying for an appointment of a one-man committee/administrator to take over the management, control and administration of the federation. The applicants prayed that a retired Supreme Court Judge or the Judge of the Delhi High Court should be preferred for the responsibility. It is learnt that the urgent application has been accepted and will be heard on Friday.
Earlier, the wrestlers, also including multiple World Championships medallist Vinesh Phogat, Rio Olympic medallist Sakshi Malik and her husband Satyawart Kadian, had filed a writ petition in the court. The court, while hearing the petition on March 7, directed that parallel selection trials should not be held. It directed that the trials scheduled to pick national teams for the Asian Championships and Asian Olympic Games Qualifier should proceed as per the circular issued by the IOA's ad-hoc committee formed to run the affairs of the WFI. During the hearing, the WFI withdrew its circular to hold the trials. The court then fixed April 26 as the next date of the hearing.
Both Bajrang and Vinesh competed in the trials held on March 10 and 11. Bajrang lost the 65kg semifinal bout thus failing to make it to the national squad. Competing in two weight categories (50kg and 53kg), Vinesh topped the trials in the first and finished with bronze in the latter division. She made it to the Indian squad by virtue of her win in the 50kg.
The wrestlers in the urgent application questioned United World Wrestling's (UWW) order dated March 8 wherein it stated that only the WFI can register athletes for international competitions being organised by the world body. The applicants alleged that the issuance of the letter dated March 8, 2024 "is a pre-mediated step undertaken by Respondent No. 2 (WFI) using officials and close aides of erstwhile president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh."
"The applicants place their averment on information received through reliable sources that one such official, Mr. Bholanath Singh was facilitating the alleged correspondence with UWW Officials on behalf of its erstwhile president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and incumbent president Sanjay Singh. His presence in the UWW Office (on March 7 when the court was hearing the matter) was more than a mere coincidence. There are ample evidences on record to establish Mr. Bholanath Singh’s close and long standing association with Respondent No. 2 / WFI and its erstwhile president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh," read the application.
It has also been prayed to direct the Union of India (respondent No 1) not to revoke the suspension of the WFI during the pendency of the writ petition. The wrestlers also questioned the decision of the IOA to dissolve the ad-hoc panel on March 18 thus giving full administrative control of the WFI to the Sanjay Kumar Singh-led panel. "Pass specific directions to Respondent No.2/WFI to handover peaceful possession and access to all resources and database including financial mandates, access to website, E-mails, and respective passwords, change in signatory authorisations etc. to the one-man committee appointed by this Hon’ble Court," the wrestlers prayed to the court.
They also requested the court to make sure the one-man committee remains the only entity to communicate with the UWW. "Pass specific directions to enable the one-man committee to be the only nodal entity to exclusively communicate with UWW and specific directions to the Indian Olympic Association to facilitate the same as per the directions and instructions of the one-man Committee and pass further Orders directing Respondent No.2-WFI to strictly adhere to the instruction of one-man committee and not to act beyond the instructions of one-man Committee."
IOC supports lifting of WFI's suspension
The International Olympic Committee on WFI's status told this daily, "The IOC supports United World Wrestling (UWW) as the competent international federation to address the governance of the sport of wrestling in India and, in particular, of the Wrestling Federation of India. We understand that the Wrestling Federation of India has been reinstated recently by UWW and that the “ad-hoc committee” which was created by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) was formally dissolved by letter dated 18 March 2024, in line with the UWW position."