The Supreme Court of India has refused to intervene with the Punjab and Haryana High Court order staying the elections of the Wrestling Federations of India (WFI).
The petitioner - Andhra Pradesh Amateur Wrestling Association has been told by the bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Pankaj Mithal to the high court with its concerns. The bench denied to "entertain the special leave petition" - a plea it was hearing against the August 11 order of the high court.
“Why should we entertain this? You go to the high court…Instead of applying for vacating the interim stay, the petitioner has chosen to approach the Supreme Court. We, therefore, decline to entertain this special leave petition,” the bench said as reported by PTI.
The Wrestling Federation of India is going through a very rough phase. A delay in holding elections has already resulted in the United World Wrestling taking a stern call and suspending WFI.
The suspension has resulted in mud-slinging that finds the outgoing WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and several wrestlers including Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia among others.
Brij Bhushan recently blamed the wrestlers for the reason that has caused the United World Wrestling to suspend the WFI. In a press conference at Gonda, Uttar Pradesh recently, he opened up on what led to the suspension and the difficulty faced during the procedure.
"WFI elections could not happen on time and that is why, the federation was suspended. I also tried that they take place on time, but due to some accusations made by players, the centre asked me to step aside from wrestling and I did. It tried four times that elections be conducted but every time, we faced an obstacle," said Brij Bhushan in the press conference.
