[IBA Women's World Championship 2023] Delhi HC grants time to BFI to file reply in plea by three boxers seeking inclusion of their names

The Delhi High Court on Monday granted time to the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) to file reply in a plea by three boxers seeking inclusion of their names for the IBA Women's World Championship- 2023.

A bench of Justice Prathiba M. Singh noted that the counsel for BFI had submitted the evolution forms.

During the hearing, on Monday, the counsel for BFI contended that the selection of the candidates had been done in a fair manner as per the “selection criteria”.

On the contrary, Advocate Sandeep Lamba contended, “I am not disputing the selection criteria, I am just asking them to consider the merits of the petitioner boxers, they have received medals”. He also referred to three charts, where a comparison of the selected candidates and the petitioners were made.

Taking note of the submissions, the single-judge bench noted that evolution forms had been submitted by the BFI from Week 1 to Week 3. It was also noted that the BFI sought time to reply to the charts presented by Lamba. Accordingly, the court listed the matter for further consideration on March 14 at 10:30 am.

After not making it to the National Team for the upcoming Women's Boxing World Championships, Three Boxers, Manju Rani, Shikha Narwal and Poonam Poonia moved the High Court seeking its intervention for their inclusion in the team. The tournament is scheduled to be held in Delhi from March 15 to 31.

It is to be noted that on March 9, the single-judge bench had refused to grant interim relief to the boxers, and stated that if the respondent maintains a reserved category player in the meantime, the petitioner boxers can be considered for the same.

The court had asked the Boxing Federation of India to submit the evaluation forms of the three boxers. “Let the evaluation forms be produced by Monday”, the judge had said.

The three boxers Manju Rani, Shikha Narwal, and Poonam Poonia have filed the plea through Advocate Sandeep Lamba. The plea stated that the petitioners requested the concerned authorities to consider their names for selection in the Women’s World Championship, but they did not get any fruitful results.

“All 3 Petitioners are national gold medallists, which was held in Dec 2022 at Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. All the Gold Medallists of the 6th Elite Women National Boxing Championship were selected except the petitioners for the World Boxing Championship which is going to be held at New Delhi from 15.03.2023”, the plea read.

Case Title: Manju Rani & Ors. v. Boxing Federation of India & Ors.