WFI to go ahead with national wrestling championships
Decks have been cleared for the Senior National Wrestling Championships to be held in Bengaluru from December 6 to 8. Last week, the Delhi High Court had restrained the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) from organising the tournament and had directed that the ad hoc body appointed by the Indian Olympic Association would instead run the affairs of the federation.
The petition has been filed by Satyawart Kadian, who wanted an administrator to be appointed to the federation. The Delhi High Court in its order dated August 16 directed the IOA to appoint an ad hoc committee which was based on the sports ministry’s suspension order.
Senior lawyer Rahul Mehra had sought an order saying that the WFI was in violation of the court’s direction that restored the ad hoc committee. The order on November 6 had then barred the WFI from holding the national championships.
However, on Wednesday, the WFI counsel Hemant Phalphar once again argued that the national championships was not held for selections of Indian teams and hence was a private event. With the IOA once again reiterating its stance of not appointing an ad hoc body as it would warrant a censure from both the international federation as well as the IOC, the WFI has been given a go ahead to hold the championships.
“We argued that the senior national championships is not being held for selections. Neither is it a ranking event. The earlier order means that we cannot select a team,” Phalpar told The Tribune on Thursday.
This is not the first time the WFI has been stopped from holding meets. Last month, the WFI had threatened to withdraw the Indian team from participating in the World Championships (non-Olympics weight categories) on October 28-31 after the protesting wrestlers threatened contempt proceedings for selecting the Indian team.
The matter was solved after sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya met the wrestlers along with WFI president Sanjay Singh. Mandaviya met them after the wrestlers sat on a six-hour long dharna outside his house.
