The Bombay High Court directs the Maharashtra State Wrestling Association (MSWA) to file an appeal before the President of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) challenging the alleged 'sudden dissolution' of MSWA's elected committee led by NCP chief Sharad Pawar.
NCP supremo Sharad Pawar had headed the MSWA committee for over 40 years, till it was dissolved by WFI on July 4, 2022.
A division bench of justices SV Gangapurwala and Madhav Jamdar directed the MSWA to file the appeal within 20 days and directed the president of WFI to decide the appeal expeditiously within 30 days from filing.
The court also took on record the statement made by WFI's counsel that an earlier undertaking, not to declare the fresh election results for the 24 posts of the executive committee, has been maintained and would continue till the appeal was decided and 10 days thereafter.
The HC was hearing two different petitions—one filed against the WFI for dissolving its committee and the second one, a contempt petition.
MSWA had filed the petition last month stating that in a meeting held on June 30, WFI's national executive committee, headed by BJP MP from Uttar Pradesh Brijbhushan Sharan Singh, decided to dissolve MSWA's committee citing failure to conduct certain tournaments. It claimed that the decision was arbitrary.
It further cited news reports which claimed that the state body's control was being handed over to Ramdas Tadas, a BJP MP from Wardha.
The present committee was appointed for five years, and its tenure would end in 2023. The state committee was merely informed that it had been dissolved and an ad-hoc committee had been appointed for the functioning of the association.
WFI’s advocate, Ajinkya Udane, informed the HC on Wednesday that MSWA had an alternate remedy for appeal and WFI was willing to consider an appeal.
The MSWA's advocate, Akshay Kapadia, agreed to the suggestion, following which the HC disposed of the petitions.
Regarding the contempt petition against WFI for allegedly disclosing names of appointees, the court recorded Udane's statements that the official body had not released the names.
