After Sharad Pawar-led committee dissolution is challenged, Bombay HC asks WFI not to declare results
India Today
The Bombay High Court on Friday asked the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) to keep the election results of the new committee under wraps till the next date of hearing.
The Bombay High Court on Friday asked the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) to keep the election results of the new committee under wraps till the next date of hearing, i.e. on August 23.
The Bombay HC statement comes after the division bench of Justices SV Gangapurwala and SM Modak granted time to WFI to file its response to the petition filed by the Maharashtra State Wrestling Association (MSWA) challenging the "sudden dissolution" of its elected committee led by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief, Sharad Pawar.
Pawar has headed the organisation for the past 40 years and it is being said that in the elections that are scheduled this Sunday, the BJP MP from Wardha, Ramdas Tadas, might get elected unopposed. Even other office bearers are set to be elected unopposed on July 31.
The WFI is the apex body of wrestling in India. MSWA is affiliated to WFI specifically with regards to the participation of the players who are enrolled with MSWA for participation in the national as well as international wrestling matches.
MSWA’s petition filed by advocates Sanjeev Kadam, Akshay Kapadia and Tushar Pawar stated that on June 13, 2022, a circular was issued by WFI to conduct a meeting of the executive committee members on June 30. There were three specific agendas that were mentioned for the meeting and the fourth one was a general agenda which required to be discussed with the permission of the chair.
The state association said that to their surprise, on June 30, the point to dissolve the present executive committee of the MSWA was taken up with the permission of the chair, even though such an important decision would normally require advance notice to be given to its members. Thereafter, on July 4, the existing committee was dissolved and an ad hoc committee came up in its place consisting of Sanjay Kumar Singh, SP Singh Deshwal and Aditya Pratap Singh.
The ad hoc committee has called a special meeting on July 31 in Nagpur to elect a new committee for the next 4 years.
