The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday stayed the Wrestling Federation of India's election scheduled for August 12. The Court stayed the already delayed polls hearing a petition filed by the Haryana Wrestling Association.
The HWA petitioned the Court challenging the move to allow the Haryana Amateur Wrestling Association to cast votes in the WFI polls. The WFI election was earlier scheduled to be held from July 6 to July 11 and was later postponed to August 12.
WFI's outgoing president and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who is facing sexual harassment charges wouldn't be able to contest the election as per Sports Code guidelines.
Advocate Ravinder Malik, representing the Haryana Wrestling Association which is headed by Member of Parliament Deepinder Hooda, said the HWA is a registered society in the state and is affiliated to the WFI.
As per rules and the constitution of the WFI, any registered affiliated body can send two representatives to cast their votes for the WFI polls, he stated. The HWA advocate said that one more body, Haryana Amateur Wrestling Association has claimed that it was affiliated with the WFI as well as Haryana Olympic Association.
Haryana Amateur Wrestling Association further claimed that the HWA has no business to participate in the election process because it is not affiliated with the WFI. "The returning officer has given the finding in favour of Haryana Amateur Wrestling Association, saying they fulfil the condition of affiliation with WFI as well as Haryana Olympic Association," said the advocate.
"We have challenged the returning officer's order in the HC, saying that the Haryana Amateur Wrestling Association may be affiliated with the WFI but it is not affiliated with the HOA, meaning they are not entitled to participate in the poll process," said Malik, representing HWA.
"In case, Haryana Amateur Wrestling Association is allowed to participate in the election process, then it will cause prejudice as well as the WFI elections will be illegal," he said.
The court has taken note of it and said lest it should cause prejudice to anybody, prima facie, it seems Haryana Amateur Wrestling Association is not eligible to cast votes.
Elections were set to be held for the posts of president (1), senior vice-president (1), vice-president (4), secretary-general (1), treasurer (1), joint secretary (2) and executive members (5).
(With PTI inputs.)
