The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside a stay imposed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on elections to the Executive Council of the Wrestling Federation of India, Live Law reported.
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Pankaj Mithal said that the High Court should have allowed the polls to be conducted, but made them subject to the outcome of the case.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court had stayed the elections in response to a petition by the Haryana Wrestling Association. The association had challenged a decision to allow the Haryana Amateur Wrestling Association to cast votes in the polls.
An ad-hoc committee of the Wrestling Federation of India then approached the Supreme Court against the High Court’s stay order. The committee was formed in April after former Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, a Bharatiya Janata Party MP, was accused of sexually harassing women wrestlers.
The ad-hoc committee was tasked with conducting elections for the executive committee of the body and also managing day-to-day affairs until the polls were conducted.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the federation to proceed with the election process but added that the results would be contingent on subsequent orders passed in the writ petition pending before the High Court.
On August 24, United World Wrestling, the international governing body of the sport, suspended the membership of the Wrestling Federation of India for its failure to conduct elections within the stipulated time. Due to this, Indians took part in the World Wrestling Championships, the first 2024 Paris Olympics qualifying event, as neutral athletes.
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