Govt Didn’t Follow Proper Procedure While Suspending WFI, Says Sanjay Singh

The recently elected president of WFI, Sanjay Singh, declared on Thursday that the sports ministry did not follow proper procedure while suspending the wrestling national body and will challenge the government's decision in a court.

Three days after the elections of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), the sports ministry, on Sunday, suspended the organization. The suspension was imposed on the grounds that WFI had violated its own constitution in making certain decisions, such as the announcement of the U-15 and U-20 National Championships.

Sanjay, however, said that his autonomous and democratically elected body could not have been suspended by the government without hearing the WFI's side of the story.

We have won the elections (of WFI) democratically. The returning officer was the retired chief justice of J&K High Court, there were observers from the IOA and UWW (United World Wrestling). There were 22 state units (three absent out of 25 state associations) taking part in the elections, 47 votes were polled out of which I got 40, Sanjay told PTI.

After all these, if you say we are suspended, we are not going to accept it. A democratically-elected body was not given a chance to explain its position which is against the principle of natural justice which everybody is entitled to under the Constitution of India.

Asked what is the way forward for his body, he said, WFI is an autonomous body and the government has not followed proper procedure. We are going to talk to the government and if it (government) does not take back the suspension, we are taking legal opinion and going to court.