At Olympic Games village, WFI chief making decisions on her fate: Vinesh counsel in Delhi HC

Wrestlers Phogat, Bajrang Punia, and others had moved a writ petition before the Delhi High Court earlier this year seeking that the court declare the fresh elections conducted for WFI in December 2023 as illegal and be set aside for not adhering to the sports code. Additionally, an application was also moved seeking a stay on the functioning and operations of WFI. The application was reserved for judgment on May 24, but it is yet to be pronounced.

On Thursday, the petitioners, which include Phogat, through their counsel, requested the court of Justice Sachin Datta to fix a date for the pronouncement of the verdict. The judge did not specify a date even as senior counsel Rahul Mehra, representing the petitioners, said that “India has lost a gold medal now”.

Justice Datta currently sits as part of the division bench with Justice Vibhu Bakhru and will have to specially assemble as a single judge to pronounce the verdict. Justice Datta heard the wrestlers’ petition at length since March when he was sitting as a single judge bench and had ultimately reserved the stay application for the verdict while the writ petition remains to be heard.

Meanwhile, during the hearing of the writ petition Thursday before the court of Justice Purushaindra Kaurav, Mehra stated that the WFI is “being manned by proxies”. “He (Sanjay Singh, president of WFI) is right now in the Olympic village deciding what should happen to Vinesh Phogat”.

The Centre’s standing counsel Anil Soni clarified that “today the entire nation is with (Phogat), I’ll not argue against her.”

Meanwhile, Justice Kaurav instructed the respondents to complete their pleadings within a week in the writ petition and granted time to the wrestlers to file a response if they wish to, and has posted the matter next for September 12.

Mehra pressed upon the urgency of the matter and requested for an earlier date, adding that it is “a national interest matter, the entire country is so upset.”

WFI suspension

Following the WFI elections last year, during which former BJP MP and Brij Bhushan Singh, accused of sexual harassment by wrestlers, was forced to resign as the body’s president, the Union sports ministry suspended the newly elected executive committee headed by Bhushan’s close aide Sanjay Singh.

Subsequently, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) appointed an ad-hoc committee by way of an office order on December 27, 2023, to oversee and supervise the operation of WFI, including athlete selection, submitting entries for athletes to participate in international events, organising sports activities, handling bank accounts, etc.