Delhi High Court upholds IOA decision to allow direct entry to Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat for Asian Games

The Delhi High Court on Saturday upheld the Indian Olympic Association's (IOA) decision to give wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat direct entry to the Asian Games without going through the trials. .Justice Subramonium Prasad dismissed the plea filed by Wrestlers Antim Panghal and Sujeet Kalkal challenging the IOA decision.In a detailed order, the Court said that the decision taken by the ad-hoc Committee to exempt Phogat and Punia cannot be said to be arbitrary or capricious or perverse."This Court is not commenting upon the merits of the Petitioners herein who have also excelled in the field of wrestling but this Court is not inclined to sit in appeal over the decision taken by the Committee as the same cannot be said to be arbitrary or perverse... It is neither the contention of the Petitioners nor can it be said that the WFI has acted against the interest of the country or that the decision has been taken because of certain extraneous circumstances or in order to favour anyone," Justice Prasad noted. Therefore, the Bench dismissed the petition. .Notably, both Phogat and Punia were actively involved in the wrestlers' protests against BJP Member of Parliament (MP) and outgoing Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) President, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. The IOA's decision was met with stiff resistance by many junior wrestlers who opposed the decision. .Panghal and Kalkal approached the High Court challenging the entry of Punia and Phogat into this year's Asian Games without going through the trials. Panghal is the reigning U20 World Champion and Kalkal is the U23 Asian Champion. The two young wrestlers had said that while they have been working hard to "clinch their position", Phogat and Punia have not participated in any competition this year and did not take part in the national camp.Their plea stated the Phogat and Punia last competed in the Commonwealth Games 2022 and World Championships 2022 and that selection of athletes for an international event without any trial is unfair and discriminatory against other athletes of the same event. The petitioners demanded that no exemption should be granted to any athlete and trial should be held in fair manner and the whole process should be videographed. .Asian will be held between September 23 and October 8 at Hangzhou, China. Originally scheduled to take place from September 10 to 25, 2022, the event was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic..Advocates Hrishikesh Baruah and Akshay Kumar appeared for petitioners Antim Panghal and Sujeet Kalkal. Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma along with Central Government Standing Counsel Anil Soni, CGSC and advocates Devvrat Yadav, Amit Gupta, Saurabh Tripathi, Vinay Yadav and Ghanshyam Jha appeared for the Union of India. Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) was represented through Senior Advocate Arnab Chaudhary and advocates Awantika Manohar, Anirudh Singh, Parul Dhurvey and Vikash Singh. Advocates Tushar Giri, Sahil Bhalaik and Siddharth Anil Khanna represented Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia. .[Read Order]