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‘Men will go and win medals…': Delhi HC highlights women athletes' interests at Vinesh Phogat case hearing
The remarks came after the court refused Phogat’s plea for interim permission to participate in selection trials for the Senior World Wrestling Championships.
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The Delhi High Court on Thursday flagged the challenges faced by women athletes whose careers are interrupted by pregnancy and childbirth, saying sporting rules must balance the national interest with the circumstances of women returning to competition after giving birth.
“This is the problem. A woman, she will get married, she will give birth to a child and in that interim period, men will go and win medals and then they will qualify and someone will have to sit back at home and look after the children. There should be something that you have to do about this also, otherwise this is being very unfair,” the court observed, according to Bar and Bench.
The remarks came while the court refused wrestler Vinesh Phogat’s plea for interim permission to participate in the Wrestling Federation of India’s (WFI) selection trials for the 2026 Senior World Wrestling Championships.
The court held that allowing her to compete despite not meeting the prescribed eligibility criteria would amount to creating a special exception in her favour.
Justice Sharma dismissed Phogat’s application seeking provisional inclusion in the eligibility pool for the Women’s Selection Trials scheduled for September 14 at Indira Gandhi Stadium in New Delhi.
The court, however, made clear that it was not expressing any final opinion on the validity of WFI’s September 7 eligibility circular or the pending disciplinary proceedings against Phogat.
HC rejects Vinesh’s plea
The Delhi high court on Thursday refused to allow wrestler Vinesh Phogat to participate in the selection trials for the 2026 Senior World Wrestling Championships, scheduled to be held in Astana, Kazakhstan, from October 24 to November 1.
A bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma observed that the eligibility criteria prescribed by the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) in its September 7 circular applied uniformly to all athletes.
The criteria included performance in events such as the 2025 Senior Nationals, 2026 Senior Open Ranking Tournament, 2026 U-23 Nationals, Federation Cup, National Coaching Camp and the 2026 U-20 World Championships.
The court held that permitting Phogat to participate provisionally would, in effect, amount to creating an exception exclusively in her favour from the eligibility criteria applicable to all other athletes.
The court said that the criteria is not framed specifically against Phogat, but had to apply uniformly to athletes seeking to participate in the selection trials. Permitting Phogat to participate by granting her a special dispensation, therefore, would not only be unfair to other athletes across the country who may have a similar grievance against the policy but are not before this Court, but would also have the effect of opening a Pandora’s box, with other athletes seeking similar exceptions from the prescribed eligibility criteria, the court said.
It added that till validity and applicability of the selection policy itself is adjudicated upon, the eligibility criteria prescribed thereunder cannot simply be set aside or wished away in the case of one athlete, and a special class cannot be carved out in Phogat’s favour.
“Undisputedly, the said criteria is not framed specifically against the petitioner, but are to apply uniformly to athletes seeking to participate in the selection trials….The petitioner’s circumstances relating to pregnancy, childbirth and post-partum recovery would require consideration while examining the validity of the policy; however, that does not, at the interim stage, by itself entitle the petitioner to a direction permitting her to participate contrary to the eligibility criteria,” the judge said.
The court passed the order in an application filed by the wrestler through her lawyers Aashita Khanna, Ritwik Prakash and Neil M Goswami seeking permission to participate in the trials on Monday.
Also Read: Delhi HC asks WFI’s stand on Vinesh Phogat’s participation in World Championship trials
(With inputs from Shruti Kakkar)
