Asian Games 2026: Delhi HC flags breach of EFI criteria in Dressage team selection but refuses to interfere

A Division Bench of the Delhi High Court on Monday refused to interfere with the selection of India's Dressage team for the 2026 Asian Games despite holding that the Equestrian Federation of India (EFI) had failed to comply with some of its own selection guidelines.

The Bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia observed that it was logistically impracticable to conduct more selection rounds, since July 15 was the deadline for submitting the final selection list.

The Court stated that it was, therefore, constrained to avoid interfering with the selection process.

"Such restraint is warranted in the larger interest of the sport and to avoid any adverse impact on the prospects of the Indian Team participating in the Dressage Event at the Asian Games," the Court stated.

The Court made the observation while dealing with pleas filed by two dressage players, Anush Agarwalla and Sudipti Hajela.

Dressage is a horse riding sport where a rider and horse perform a series of precise, predetermined movements in an arena.

Agarwalla and Hajela had challenged their non-selection in the Asian Games squad. The games are scheduled to be held in Japan this year between September 19 to October 4, 2026.

Last month, a single judge Bench comprising Justice Mini Pushkarna had rejected the petitions filed by Hajela and Agarwalla observing that the selection process followed by EFI was fair and in consonance with the selection criteria.

The two equestrian riders then filed an appeal before the High Court's Division Bench.

In its July 6 ruling, the Division Bench found that the EFI had not complied with clauses 15(a) and 15(b) of its selection criteria.

Under the said clauses, a list of "probables" is required to be first prepared, from which a final list of players would be drawn. The Court also noted that EFI did not comply with the requirement under Clause 8(f) of the selection criteria to publish the Provisional Merit List of the "probables".

The EFI said that it did not have time to follow the full procedure. It also claimed that it was futile to hold competitions among the probables.

The Court expressed disapproval over this explanation, stating that such reasons do not inspire confidence.

"Ideally, the list of Probables ought to have been prepared sufficiently in advance to enable competitions to be conducted during the Training Period and to permit the Selection Committee to take a final call on the Team in terms of Clauses 15(a) and 15(b) of the Selection Criteria," it added.

The Court added,

"EFI appears to have acted with undue haste without complying with the procedure required to be followed for preparation of the Selection List."

However, the Court went on to note that it was too late to order a fresh selection exercise without jeopardising India's participation in the Asian Games.

Therefore, it declined to interfere with the selection for the 2026 Asian Games, but warned that EFI must strictly comply with their selection criteria in future.

"The present Appeals are disposed of without interference with the Impugned Judgment, with direction to EFI to strictly comply with the Selection Criteria henceforth," the Court said.

Senior Advocate Rahul Mehra with advocates Astha Sharma, Anju Thomas, Mantika Haryani, Pratibha Yadav, Bhanu Mishra, Jyotika, Chaitanya Gosain and H Chimthanawala appeared for Anush Agarwalla.

Senior Advocate Kirtiman Singh with advocates Kritika Gupta, Mohit Kumar Sharma, Ritwik Saha, M Khurana appeared for Sudipti Hajela.

Advocates Tanmay Mehta, Kapil Modi, Niyati Kohli and Rishabh Parikh appeared for the EFI.

Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma, senior panel counsel Udit Dedhiya, with advocates Amit Gupta, R V Prabhat, Shubham Sharma, Yash Wardhan Sharma, Apurva Sachdev, Priyansh Gupta, appeared for the Union of India.

Advocates Kumudavalli Seetharaman and Geetika Vyas appeared for the Indian Olympic Association.

Advocates Kirat Singh Nagra, Kartik Yadav, Sumedha Chadha appeared for a dressage player, Hriday Chheda.

[Read Judgement]