BFI polls: Delhi HC stays federation circular on state units
The court, on the Delhi boxing body’s plea, stayed BFI’s circular allowing only elected state members to participate
New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Wednesday allowed Delhi Amateur Boxing Association (DABA) to participate in the upcoming Boxing Federation of India (BFI) elections by staying the federation’s circular allowing only elected members of state units to participate in the elections, till August 18.
On March 7, BFI president Ajay Singh’s circular allowed only elected members to represent state units for the March 28 polls. The returning officer (RO), former Delhi high court judge RK Gauba, had on March 13 accepted the final list of the electoral college prepared by the BFI president based on the circular, refusing to accept the list prepared by its former secretary general Hemanta Kumar Kalita. Gauba had ruled the nominations by DABA of Rohit Jainendra Jain and Neeraj Kant Bhat as invalid.
Singh in his final list prepared on March 12 had said DABA’s participation would be subject to RO’s approval. He had rejected the nomination of former sports minister Anurag Thakur from the Himachal Pradesh state association saying that he was “ineligible” for the elections as his nomination was in violation of BFI constitution and the National Sports Code.
Dealing with DABA’s plea, a bench of justice Mini Pushkarna opined that barring the former from participating in the polls would cause prejudice.
“This court is of the view that prima facie case has been established by the petitioners in its favour and prejudice shall be caused if the petitioner is not allowed to participate in the election process… The operation of the circular dated March 7 is stayed till the next date of hearing,” the order said.
The court, however, did not stay the elections.
“It is clarified that the election process shall be continued by respondent 1 i.e. BFI, de hors the effect and operation of the notice dated March 7 and the results shall also be declared accordingly by respondent 1, which shall be subject to the outcome of the present writ petition,” the court said.
During the hearing, the court also issued notice in DABA’s petition seeking to quash the March 7 circular, saying that the matter “needed consideration”, and fixed August 18 as the next date of hearing.
In its petition, argued by senior advocate Abhijat Bal along with advocate Vidushpat Singhania, DABA had asserted that the March 7 circular was malafide, arbitrary and in violation of the Sports Code since it permitted formation of the electoral college comprising elected as well as authorised members of the state units and was issued without any “consultative process”. He also urged the court to permit his clients to participate in the polls, asserting that Singh by issuance of the circular had imposed the restrictive condition only for ousting the competition and ensuring his victory.
While BFI represented by senior advocate Dayanan Krishnan submitted that the circular was passed taking note of an office noting passed by the union sports ministry in 2020 as per which only elected members of the executive body of the state/UT associations could cast vote in elections of the National Sports Federation (NSF’s).
However, the union sports ministry represented by standing counsel Premtosh Kumar Mishra submitted that the circular was against the “tone” and “tenor” of the mandate of the sports code, Model Election Guidelines (MEG) provided therein as well as BFI’s constitution. Mishra further submitted that a defective electoral roll would result in vitiating the election and the office noting could not be said to be a final view since there was no official intimation.