On 24th December, the Ministry of Sports, Government of India, ordered the suspension of all activities of the newly-elected Wrestling Federation of India, including the decision to announce junior national championships with “complete disregard for the existing rules and regulations”. The ministry’s decision came after the newly elected WFI President Sanjay Singh announced that the nationals for U-16 and U20 will start on 28th December in Nandini Nagar of Gonda in Uttar Pradesh. As per the ministry, the decision by the federation was taken against the provisions of the constitution of WFI as no prior notice was given to the wrestlers who will take part in the nationals.
The union sports ministry decided to step in after several state wrestling federations objected to the dates announced by the WFI.
Union Sports Ministry suspends the newly elected body of Wrestling Federation of India after the newly elected president Sanjay Singh announced U-15 and U-20 nationals to take place in Nandini Nagar, Gonda (UP) before the end of this year. pic.twitter.com/eMZyNK914Z
— ANI (@ANI) December 24, 2023
However, the govt has not suspended the newly elected body, as claimed by most media reports, because the union govt has no authority to suspend an elected sports federation, as explained earlier. The sports ministry has suspended all activities of the WFI, including the decision to hold the junior events because it was announced in violation of the WFI’s own constitution.
‘WFI has been instructed to suspend all its activities till further orders,’ a press note issued by the union sports ministry said. The ministry also noted that WFI still stands suspended by the international wrestling body UWW. While it was expected that UWW would lift the suspension after the election of the new body, the same has not been done yet.
The ministry cited the provisions of the WFI constitution which says that a minimum notice of 15 days is needed to be given to call Executive Committee meetings, which can be reduced to 7 days for emergency meetings. Moreover, a quorum of ⅓rd of members is required. But these provisions were not met while announcing the dates, the ministry said.
The press note issued by the ministry to media houses said, “Shri Sanjay Kumar Singh, newly elected President of Wrestling Federation of India announced on 21.12.2023, the day he was elected as president, that U-15 and U-20 nationals for Wrestling will take place in Nandini Nagar, Gonda (UP) before the end of this year. This announcement is hasty, without giving sufficient notice to wrestlers who are to take part in the said nationals and without following the provisions of the constitution of WFI.”
The ministry said that the “decisions made by the newly elected executive body of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) demonstrate a blatant disregard for the established legal and procedural norms, violating both the WFI’s constitutional provisions and the National Sports Development Code.”
In the press note, the Sports Ministry said, “As per clause 3 (e) of the preamble of the constitution of WFI, the object of the WFI, among others, is to arrange holding of Senior, Junior and Sub Junior National Championships as per UWW Rules at places selected by the Executive Committee (EC).”
It added, “Such decisions are to be taken by the Executive Committee, before which agendas must be considered. As per Article XI of the WFI constitution, under the Heading ‘Notices and Quorum for Meetings’, the minimum notice period for EC meetings is 15 clear days, and the quorum is 1/3rd of representatives. Even for Emergency EC meetings, the minimum notice period is seven clear days with a quorum requirement of 1/3rd of representatives.”
The release added, “Further, in terms of Article X (d) of the Constitution of WFI, it is the Secretary General of WFI, who has been made responsible for carrying out the general business of the Federation, keeping the minutes of the meetings, maintaining all the records of the Federation, calling the meetings of the General Council and the Executive Committee. It seems the Secretary-General has not been involved in the said EC meeting, which was held without any notice or quorum.”
The ministry also reportedly said that “The newly elected body appears to be in complete control of former office bea, disregarding the Sports Code.” As per reports, the new WFI is still operating from former president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh’s official bungalow.
Earlier, several state wrestling federations had objected to the dates announced by the WFI for the union championships. Newly-elected WFI secretary-general, Prem Chand Lochab had written to new WFI president Sanjay Singh that “few states have objected to rescheduling and relocating of age group and junior Nationals”. He had said that the the grievances of state federations are genuine, and proposed that “the U20 and U15 National Wrestling Championships 2023 scheduled at Nandini Nagar, Gonda from December 28-30 may be postponed”.
Reportedly, the release did not mention anything about the opposition to the election of Sanjay Singh as chief of WFI. It is notable that opposing the election results, wrestler Bajrang Punia said he will give back his Padma Shri award, and Sakshi Malik took retirement from wrestling.
OpIndia had earlier explained how govt can’t interfere in the running of sports bodies, as that results in suspension by parent international bodies. However, WFI is already suspended by United World Wrestling for not holding elections in time. Moreover, the govt has only ordered the postponement of the championships announced by the WFI, and not suspended the WFI as reported by media, therefore it may not be considered an interference.
NOTE: This report has been updated with relevant information after it was first published
