Delhi High Court stays Gymnastics Federation of India elections

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday stayed the upcoming elections to select the office bearers and members of the executive committee of the Gymnastics Federation of India (GFI)..Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav said that the stay will remain in force till the next date of hearing of the matter on October 12.“Unless the matter is fully heard by this court, at this stage, there is a serious doubt about compliance of the mandate of the Sports Code and the directions passed in WP(C) 195/2010 dated 16.08.2022 [where the Court ordered all the National Sports Federations to comply with the Sports Code]. Accordingly, it is directed that there shall be a stay of the impugned notice dated 07.07.2022 regarding the election of the office bearers and members of the executive committee of respondent no 2-GFI till the next date of hearing,” the Court ordered..The Court passed the directions while hearing a plea by one Padmaja Garikipati – an ophthalmologist and a judge for gymnastics – arguing that the elections were slated to be held in violation of the orders of the High Court.The Court was told that in its judgement dated August 16, 2022, a division bench of the Delhi High Court had ordered the Central government to ensure compliance with its directions for future elections in all the National Sports Federation, but the GFI is not following those directions and elections have been called without compliance with the same. Justice Kaurav considered the case and said that the GFI is bound by the directions of the High Court and they cannot be diluted.It, therefore, stayed the elections..Senior Advocate Rahul Mehra along with advocates RA Iyer, Chaitanya Gosain and Anand Thumbayil appeared for the petitioner Padmaja Garikipati.Senior Advocate R Bala Subramanian, Central Government Standing Counsel Ajay Digpaul as well as advocates Kamal Digpaul, Swati Kwatra, Vinayak Sharma and Ishita Pathak represented the Central government.Advocates Hrishikesh Baruah, Pranit Pranav, Parth Goswami and Akshay Kumar appeared for the GFI..[Read Order]