Supreme Court allows Vinesh Phogat to participate in Asian Games trials but questions her for missing doping tests

The Supreme Court on Friday allowed wrestler Vinesh Phogat to participate in the Asian Games 2026 selection trials scheduled to be held from May 30.

A bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe said that it will not interfere with the Delhi High Court direction allowing Phogat to take part in the trials.

"The respondent shall be permitted to participate in the selection trials for Asian Games 2026. List on 1st for further review. We are not stopping. You go ahead and participate," the Court said.

It was hearing an appeal filed by Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) challenging the Delhi High Court order allowing Phogat to participate in the Asian Games trials.

Though the Supreme Court gave green signal to Phogat to take part in the trials, it took strong exception to her missing the doping tests and keeping the WFI in dark about her whereabouts.

"Definitely you are not an ordinary athlete. But on December 14, 2024, you took a sabbatical saying you will start participating in August 2025. On June 3, 2025, you informed that the sabbatical ended and you’ll commence. After that you become a mother in July 2025. The eligibility commences with International Testing Agency (ITA) letter. They wrote a letter on July 3 saying you will be eligible from January 1, 2026. It’s a little disturbing. That two important things are to be followed. Doping tests and whereabouts. They gave written to you that you missed doping tests and they didn’t know about whereabouts. Then there is an order of ITA, you have given an explanation, you have said you were busy in assembly etc. and they have not considered your explanation as satisfactory. Meanwhile, the Asian Games schedule has already started in February. Now the writ petition gets filed on May 13. If you had to participate after the sabbatical, anyone must be fully prepared. What is concerning is that when ITA, whereabouts are missed, the consequences are if it has a logical conclusion..If some kind of a disqualification occurs at world level, it is a reflection on the country," the Court said.

The Bench also took exception to the High Court decision to term the WFI decision as exclusionary.

"The High Court puts it as if the entire thing was for the reason… you had planned it out. Do you know the consequences of missing the first doping test? For the High Court to say, it’s rather surprising, without referring to any of the rules, says this policy is exclusionary. That’s disturbing. The policy was in Feb 2026 and applied across the board. This is not the way the high court should apply and handle a 226. These are national and international sports," the apex court opined.

"We will ask them. In the normal course, it could not have troubled us. You have been an excellent wrestler. But country first. Courts should not interfere in this manner and disrupt the entire schedule," the Bench added.

Senior Advocate Madhavi Divan, appearing for Phogat, said that the wrestler was not seeking an exemption from the rules but only an opportunity to take part in the trials.

"I am not seeking any exemption. It is the balance of convenience that I plead today, if I miss this bus… I may qualify or I may not. But please allow me a fair chance. I am not seeking any relaxation. Allow me to participate (in trials)," Divan submitted.

However, the top court remarked that it is not always for the courts to interfere in such issues and the answer is to strengthen institutions and bodies which manage such sports.

"We have been seeing it since the time of BCCI. The answers are not in a court order. Institutionalisation must be stronger. Strong handholding must be there with the players. Otherwise, arguments will be emotional. Then the court will be vulnerable. Court needs to be strong in matters like this. She must participate. After that we will see. We will work it out," the Bench remarked.

Nevertheless, it proceeded to allow Phogat to participate in the trials.

It also issued notice to her on WFI's appeal.

The Delhi High Court had earlier allowed her to participate in the Asian Games 2026 selection trials scheduled to be held from May 30.

In a verdict delivered on May 22, a Division Bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia had noted that Phogat could not meet the Wrestling Federation of India's (WFI) "exclusionary" selection policy only because she was on maternity leave and that motherhood cannot become a ground for exclusion or marginalisation of female athletes like Phogat.

"It cannot be denied that the journey of a female athlete through pregnancy and the post-partum period is one that is marked by extraordinary physical challenges, the magnitude of which is often insufficiently acknowledged within institutional sporting frameworks. We cannot remain oblivious to the physiological realities and disadvantages related to child birth that female athletes undergo during maternity," the Court said.

Notably, the Division Bench also slammed the WFI for issuing a "deplorable" show-cause notice to Phogat and termed the WFI's action as vindictive.

The WFI notice had said that her disqualification from the Paris Olympics for being overweight was a "national shame".

However, the Court took strong objections to the choice of words and said that it revealed mala fides on WFI's part.

"Such observations made in the SCN [show-cause notice] despite the award issued by CAS [Court of Arbitration for Sport], which clearly held that there was no wrongdoing on part of the appellant [Phogat], appear to be pre-mediated and are ex-facie misconceived and ought to have been avoided. Such observations are retrograde and show the mala fide intent of respondent No. 1 [WFI] by being vindictive against the appellant," the Court observed.

It then proceeded to pass the present order allowing Phogat to participate in the trials.

According to reports, Phogat was barred from the trials as the eligibility for the wrestling trials was limited to medal winners of certain competitions held in 2025 and 2026.

Phogat did not compete in any of these events. She had announced her retirement following the 2024 Olympics but returned to wrestling in December 2025.

The WFI issued a show-cause notice accusing Phogat of indiscipline, anti-doping rule violations and failure to comply with mandatory return-to-competition procedures after retirement.

According to WFI, Phogat did not complete the required six-month notice period under United World Wrestling regulations before attempting a comeback. The notice also referred to her 2024 Paris Olympics disqualification for being overweight, calling it a "national embarrassment", and alleged “whereabouts failures” linked to anti-doping protocols. 

Phogat rejected the allegations, stating that both the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Testing Agency had cleared her to compete from January 2026 onward. She claimed that the Federation was attempting to force her into retirement and described the action as unfair and politically motivated.

On May 21, a single-judge Bench of the Delhi High Court denied any immediate relief to Phogat, prompting her to approach the Division Bench.

The Division Bench ruled that "motherhood must be viewed as a natural and deeply significant aspect of life that deserves accommodation and institutional sensitivity".

It added that since the single-judge has issued notice on Phogat's plea challenging the selection policy and the show cause notice issued to her, and listed the case for further proceedings in July, it was necessary that she is permitted to participate in the selection trials "in the interest of sport and justice".

It added that the trials will be video recorded by the WFI, and the Central government will nominate two independent observers from the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to observe the same and submit a report before the single-judge who is hearing Phogat's plea.

The WFI then approached the Supreme Court.

During the hearing today, Senior Advocate Madhavi Divan pointed out that the WFI in its notice to Phogat had termed her disqualification from Paris Olympics a "national shame".

"You are representing a client that made the country proud," the Court said.

"They called me a national embarrassment," Divan pointed out.

"We don’t want to get into the argument as if her pregnancy is the cause of this kind of situation. That approach is unacceptable. Today there is a direction she must be permitted to participate. To that extent it may not be correct for us to withdraw that. Single-judge was unjustified in putting it (the case for hearing) in July," the Bench remarked.

"We need to take a call. We have to deal with the situation. They say 12 candidates are selected… " the Court remarked.

"The trials are tomorrow," Divan highlighted.

"How does a wrestling trial happen?" the Court asked.

"A woman who has given birth is not seeking any concession. If I am not allowed to participate it would be a national embarrassment. 12 months, if you miss three times it is… my 12 months are not over. I still have the opportunity. In January I gave it," Divan said.

"As a matter of consistent practice, past performance is always taken on record," she added.

"Show us the rules," the Court said.

"When the policy was issued in February, there were certain tournaments mentioned. Always they had the policy that past performance will be taken into account. In the past, they have always given exception to iconic players," Divan stated.

"She never applied," the WFI counsel said.

"I didn’t need to apply. They said that will not give exemption in Feb. This is a departure. They suddenly said no past performance will be taken into account. Women face this problem. There is a natural disadvantage. This was tailor made to exclude her," Divan contended.

Despite questioning Phogat, the Supreme Court eventually said that it will be improper to ask her not to participate now given that High Court has already allowed her.

"High court having passed the order, to tell her to go back home will not be proper. Everything is not legal based," the Supreme Court said despite opposition by WFI.

"Asian Games told India that potential names should come by May 14. We have given the names of all the players," WFI counsel told the Bench.

However, the Court did not interfere with the High Court's decision to allow Phogat to participate in the trials.

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