The Union Sports Ministry has suspended the Wrestling Federation of India body under the leadership of newly elected president Sanjay Singh. The Ministry announced its decision on Sunday citing hasty decisions by the newly elected body and that it has shown complete disregard for the existing rules and regulations.

The ministry cited that the president of the newly elected body – Sanjay Kumar Singh – announced on 21 December that the junior national competitions will begin before the end of this year. The Ministry detailed that this was against the rules and at least a 15-day notice was needed so that the wrestlers could prepare.

“Such decisions (holding nationals) are to be taken by Executive Committee, before which agendas are required to be placed for consideration. As per Article XI of the WFI constitution under the Heading ‘Notices and Quorum for Meetings’, minimum notice period for EC meeting is 15 clear days and quorum is of 1/3rd of representatives. Even for Emergency EC meeting, minimum notice period is 7 clear days with quorum requirement of 1/3rd of representatives,” the Ministry said in its press release.

“Newly elected body appears to be in complete control of former office bearers in complete disregard to the Sports Code,” it further said.

“The business of the Federation is being run from the premises controlled by former office bearers. Which is also alleged premises wherein sexual harassment of the players have been alleged and present the court is hearing the matter,” it added.

“The decisions made by the newly elected executive body of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) demonstrate a blatant disregard for the established legal and procedural norms, violating both the WFI’s constitutional provisions and the National Sports Development Code,” the Ministry said.

Earlier, Sakshi Malik had announced her retirement from wrestling in a protest against Singh’s election.