Court issues notice on wrestler's plea for Glasgow CWG trial

The Delhi High Court Monday sought a response from the central government and two sports authorities on the plea of Asian Championship silver medallist Amit Kumar Dhankar, who sought court's direction on the method of choosing wrestlers for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games (CWG).

Justice Siddharth Mridul asked Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), Sports Authority of India (SAI) and the union sports ministry to file their replies by June 23, and sought to know why trials were not conducted for shortlisting wrestlers for the CWG 2014.

Dhankar has requested court to issue direction for holding trials for wrestlers in the 65 kg freestyle wrestling category fairly and to recommend the name of the best wrestler in the category to represent India in the Games.

"Arbitrary decision of not holding the trials is absolutely illegal and is also against the spirit for which the Wrestling Federation of India has been constituted," Dhankar said.

He contended that it will result in sending of all such players who have not competed with the other meritorious talent in the country and bring a bad name to the nation.

Apprising the court that in the past trials were held before every Commonwealth Games, he argued that to recommend players without holding trials this time is absolutely unfair and illegal.

Dhankar requested the court to issue direction to the authorities concerned so that they may not recommend any name whimsically and without a trial and the process should be video recorded.

Informing the court that senior officials of the WFI have refused to hold any trials for wrestling, Dhankar said that till date, the federation has neither held any trial nor issued any notice for conducting trials for picking best wrestlers.