After 14 months of tussle and legal battles, the Union Sports Ministry has revoked the ‘suspension’ of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) paving the way for the National Sports Federation’s smooth functioning and the wrestlers’ participation in international events.
The Ministry had derecognised the WFI on December 24, 2023 on grounds of “lapses regarding governance and procedural integrity by the newly elected body, which apparently was in control of former office-bearers in complete disregard to the provisions of the National Sports Code.”
This had resulted in several sanctions, including the Ministry not recognising the events organised by the WFI even as United World Wrestling, the international federation, recognised the WFI as the sole authority to send entries for international competitions.
As some wrestlers, who had protested against the then WFI top brass for alleged irregularities and sexual harrasment, moved court against the activities conducted by the WFI, led by Sanjay Singh (an associate of the beleagured former president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh), the Delhi High Court restrained the WFI from conducting selection trials as the federation did not have the government recognition and asked the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to consider the option of forming an ad-hoc committee, like it has done when the WFI was suspended by UWW for not holding its elections due to wrestlers’ protest, to run the federation.
However, the IOA, in the wake of the UWW stance in favour of the WFI, had refrained from forming an ad-hoc panel.
After the Indian wrestlers suffered and could not compete in two important ranking series events, the court in a recent order observed that the selection and participation of the wrestlers in international events was in jeopardy because of the absence of a competent authority.
Taking note of the court’s observation and conducting a spot verification of the WFI office, to ensure that it has moved out of Brij Bhushan’s house, the Ministry finally revoked its ‘suspension’ order on the federation.
The Ministry asked the WFI executive committee to give an undertaking within four weeks that “Any person who is not elected as an office-bearer, as also the suspended/terminated salaried officials of the WFI must remain completely disassociated from the Federation and its affiliate units.”
The WFI must ensure that selection for all international events should be done in a free, fair and transparent manner, said the Ministry’s order.
Published – March 11, 2025 12:39 pm IST
