Orders ‘violated’, HC summons WFI chief

The Punjab and Haryana high court has summoned national wrestling body chief Sanjay Kumar Singh on August 28 after finding him prima facie ‘guilty’ of contempt of court over ‘non-compliance of orders’.

Singh, a close aide of controversial BJP leader and Wrestling Federation of India’s (WFI) former president Brij Bhushan Singh, has been president of the WFI since December 2023.

He was summoned by the high court during proceedings of a plea from Haryana Amateur Wrestling Association (HAWA) in which it had stated that on two occasions, despite court orders, the players affiliated to it were not permitted to participate in the WFI events and selection trials.

In April, the court ordered that players sponsored by the HAWA be allowed to participate in the Federation Cup (seniors) that was to be held in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, that month. However, they were not permitted. Second example cited by the association was that of selection trials held in June in Jhajjar for under-17 selection camp. Here also they were not allowed despite court orders, petitioner association’s lawyer Narender Singh had told the court.

The association had demanded that in view of the WFI not even complying with court orders, an ad hoc committee/body of administrators/administrator be appointed to oversee the affairs of the WFI. As per Narender Singh, the association lawyer, its players were targeted because after elected body of WFI was suspended by the Centre in December 2023 and an ad hoc committee formed by the Indian Olympic Association started looking into administration of the WFI, the association was sending its players for the events held by ad hoc committee. During the period of administration of ad-hoc committee, Sanjay Kumar Singh, was holding trials and other events parallelly. Now as ad-hoc committee has been disbanded, the WFI president is illegally permitting players from Haryana Wrestling Association for the WFI events.

The court observed that prima facie the petitioner association has reflected that “there is a continued attempt” on the part of the WFI and its chief to completely disregard the court orders.

The reasons cited “prima facie (are) an afterthought and merely an attempt to disregard the order by eye-washing this court into believing certain facts that do not stand corroborated from the contemporaneous and documentary evidence that has been placed before this court,” the bench of justice Vinod S Bhardwaj observed while fixing the hearing for August 28.