Wrestlers' selection: HC reserves verdict on plea for trials

The Delhi High Court today reserved its judgement on a plea for holding of trials for selecting wrestlers for the upcoming 20th Commonwealth Games (CWG) in Scotland as well as seeking suspension of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) for not following the sports code.
A bench of justice V Kameswar Rao concluded the hearing on the petitions of five wrestlers who have alleged that the men's wrestling squad which is to represent the nation in the games, commencing from July 23, was selected without holding any trials.
They have claimed that holding of selection trials is mandatory as per the 2011 National Sports Development Code which WFI has not adhered to and also said that the Centre did not ensure that the guidelines were implemented by the sports body.

While the Centre has admitted that the sports code has to be followed mandatorily by national sports federations like WFI, in the present case it could not clarify whether the guidelines have been adhered to as the government had from 2014 stopped appointing observers to look into the training camps conducted by the various sports bodies.
Meanwhile, WFI has taken the stand that the sports code is not law and if the Centre has not insisted upon its implementation, it is up to the sports body concerned to decide whether or not to adhere to the guidelines.
The court had recently come down heavily on WFI for not following the sports code in its entirety while selecting wrestlers for the upcoming CWG 2014 in Glasgow.

The court had also observed that the Centre did not ensure implementation of the code.
It had made the observations while hearing the pleas of wrestlers -- Amit Kumar Dhankar, Joginder Kumar, Rahul Aware, Mausam Khatri and Rajneesh Dalal -- who have sought that trials be held involving them and the selected players and the winners be allowed to represent India in the games.