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Synopsis

The Delhi High Court on Friday "reserved orders" in the plea filed by wrestlers Antim Panghal and Sujeet Kalkal over the exemption granted to Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia for direct entry to Asian Games 2023 trials by the WFI ad-hoc.

The bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad said, "Heard. Reserved. Pronouncement tomorrow through VC by evening".

While reserving the order, the court asked the ad-hoc panel running Wrestling federation of India (WFI) to file an affidavit by today evening that there is no record of a withdrawal of exemptions in a meeting of August 25, 2020.

Court said that he will not deal with the issue of who is a better wrestler. "We will only see if the procedure has been followed or not", he added.

Notably, on Thursday the court had sought response of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) in the plea by the wrestlers. 

The single-judge bench had also asked the WFI, as to what is the basis for selecting these persons, other than the fact that they’re good sportspersons.

“Have you done any kind of selection process? …the entire case is that there has to be some kind of a trial, so that the petitioners do not doubt the competence on the merit of the two wrestlers whom you have selected for representing the country”, Justice Prasad had said.

He had added, “What they say is that the past performance alone cannot be the basis of sending the two persons forward”.

The petition, moved through Advocate Hrishikesh Baruah and Akshay Kumar contended that the directive issued by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) ad-hoc committee with regards to the two categories (men’s freestyle 65kg and women’s 53kg) be quashed and the exemption granted to Bajrang and Vinesh be set aside.

The plea contended that the trials should be held in a "fair manner", without granting any exemption to any wrestler and the "whole process be videographed".

Case Title: Sujeet & Anr. v. Union of India and Ors.