WFI elections delayed further with Gauhati High Court fixing July 28 as next date for hearing Assam association plea | More sports News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) elections have faced another delay as the Gauhati High Court has set July 28 as the next hearing date for the petition filed by the Assam Wrestling Association (AWA).
The elections were originally scheduled for July 11 but were stayed by the court after the AWA requested the right to participate in the election process.
The AWA argued that it should be recognised as an affiliated member of the WFI with voting rights. Despite the recommendation of the WFI Executive Committee on November 15, 2014, the national federation has denied recognition to the state association.
The ongoing legal proceedings have further postponed the WFI elections, and the outcome of the upcoming hearing will determine the future course of action regarding the participation of the Assam Wrestling Association in the election process.
Devajit Saikia, the AWA advocate, told PTI that the matter has been listed for next hearing on July 28.
“The WFI lawyer didn’t appear before the court today. Representative of the sports ministry, which is among the respondents, sought one week’s time to file their affidavit. Accordingly, the court asked them to file the affidavit by July 26 and listed the matter for July 28,” Saikia informed.

It could not be known why the IOA ad-hoc committee, one of the respondents along with the Sports Ministry, did not send its lawyer as panel head Bhupender Singh Bajwa did not take calls.
“It is the job of the ad-hoc panel to respond to the petition. We did not have a role in that. Our body is suspended, how could we interfere in this? We had made our position clear to the Returning Officer that Assam was never a full member, it had an associate membership without voting right,” said an official from the previous WFI set up.
Interestingly, WFI held elections in 2015 and 2019 but the Assam association did not approach the court demanding full membership then.
The Gauhati High Court issued a stay on the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) polls on June 25, which was the deadline for submitting names for the electoral college.
The petitioner argued that unless their body is affiliated with the WFI and allowed to nominate their representative to the electoral college, the election process should be halted.
The WFI initially scheduled the elections for May 7 but was suspended by the Sports Ministry. Following a meeting with protesting wrestlers, Sports Minister Anurag Thakur announced that the WFI elections would be conducted by June 30.
The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) later declared that the elections would take place on July 4, but the Returning Officer then postponed it to July 6.
However, when five disaffiliated state bodies claimed eligibility for voting, the Returning Officer further delayed the elections by five days, setting the new date as July 11.
(With PTI inputs)