SC sets aside Punjab & Haryana HC stay on WFI elections

The top court said the proper course by the HC would have been to allow the election to be conducted and make the election subject to the outcome of the pending writ petition

Paving the way for elections of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday set aside the stay imposed by the Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) on holding of polls to the wrestling body.

The top court had on August 29 refused to interfere with the HC’s order staying the WFI elections. (File)

A bench of justices Abhay S Oka and Pankaj Mithal said it failed to understand how the entire election process could have been set at naught by HC.

The top court said the proper course by the HC would have been to allow the election to be conducted and make the election subject to the outcome of the pending writ petition.

“Pending a writ petition filed by the Haryana Wrestling Association, by an interim order the HC has stayed the election of WFI. We fail to understand how the entire process of the election could have been set at naught by HC,” the bench observed.

“Accordingly, the impugned order granting interim relief is set aside. It will be open for returning officer to proceed with the election by publishing a revised election programme. We make it clear that the outcome of the election will be subject to orders that may be passed in the petition,” the bench said.

The top court had earlier sought the response of the Centre and others on a plea by the ad-hoc committee constituted to run the WFI challenging a stay imposed by the Punjab and Haryana HC on holding elections to the wrestling body. The ad-hoc panel had moved the apex court against the September 25 order of the HC putting the elections on hold.

The top court had on August 29 refused to interfere with the HC’s order staying the WFI elections.

The development had come days after United World Wrestling, the global governing body for the sport, suspended WFI for not conducting its elections on time.

The Indian Olympic Association-appointed ad-hoc panel governing the WFI had initially scheduled the elections for July 6 but was forced to reschedule it to July 11 after some disaffiliated state bodies from Maharashtra, Haryana, Telangana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh approached it for a hearing, claiming their dismissal was not appropriate.

The panel heard the aggrieved representatives of the state bodies but the polls could not be held even on July 11, with the Gauhati High Court staying the elections after the Assam Wrestling Association sought the right to participate in the poll process.