The Delhi High Court Saturday refused to interfere with the exemption granted to Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat from Asian Games trials.
The court rejected the petition by Under-20 World Champion Antim Panghal and Under-23 Asian Champion Sujeet Kalkal against the direct entry granted to Punia and Phogat into the Asian Games 2023 by the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) ad-hoc.
“The Ad-hoc Committee of the WFI, which comprises experts in the field of wrestling, have unanimously decided that Respondents No.3 (Punia) & 4 (Phogat), who are elite athletes, should be exempted from selection trials in order to prevent them from suffering any injury in the selection process,” the court said.
“The Asian Games are to begin in about two months’ time and in case injury is caused to the elite athletes, who are medal probables, the time for recovery is extremely low and, therefore, the decision taken by the Committee to exempt Respondents No.3 (Punia) & 4 (Phogat) from selection trials in order to ensure that they are not to exposed to injuries during trials cannot be said to be arbitrary or capricious or perverse,” the court added.
Bajrang Punia (65kg) and Vinesh Phogat (53kg) were given direct entry into the Indian squad for the Asian Games, while other wrestlers will have to earn their places in the Indian squad through selection trials on July 22 and 23.
Earlier, on Wednesday, Antim Panghal, along with several others, hit the streets in Haryana’s Hisar to protest against the exemption given to Punia and Phogat.
Notably, Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat had led the wrestlers’ protest at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar against outgoing WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh over alleged sexual harassment.
