A High Court of Delhi Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia, has ruled that it was constrained from interfering with Justice Mini Pushkarna’s judgement ruling that the Equestrian Federation of India selection of the Dressage team for the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games was not in variance with the Selection Criteria.
“… we are constrained to refrain from interfering with the impugned judgment. Such restraint is warranted in the larger interest of the sport, and to avoid any adverse impact on the prospects of the Indian team participating in the Dressage event at the Asian Games,” the Division Bench wrote in its judgment.
Interestingly, the Bench held that some clauses of the Selection Criteria were not complied with but it accepted the EFI view that it was not possible to conduct trials for the six probables due to paucity of time. The Division Bench’s restraint puts the ball in the court of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports which clears the Indian contingent for the Asian Games.
Justice Tejas Karia read out the operative portion of the Judgement on Monday afternoon.
“Accordingly, while we do not find any infirmities with the preparation of the list of probables in terms of Clause 13 of the Selection Criteria, we are of the view that the requirement prescribed under Clause 15 a and 15 b of the Selection Criteria were not duly complied with,” the Judgement said. “Having regard to the deadline of July 15, it is logistically impracticable to conduct a further competition within the timeframe available, particularly since the riders and horses are located at different places across the globe and transporting horses from different locations to a common venue for conducting a competition among all six probables would not be possible in such a short span of time.
“Having regard to the particular facts and circumstances of the present case and considering the limited time available, before the deadline of July 15, we are constrained to refrain from interfering with the impugned judgment. Such restraint is warranted in the larger interest of the sport, and to avoid any adverse impact on the prospects of the Indian team participating in the Dressage event at the Asian Games. In view of the aforesaid discussion, the present appeals are disposed of without interference with the impugned judgment with the direction to EFI to strictly comply with the Selection Criteria, henceforth,” the Judgement concluded.
The Division Bench held marathon sittings last week to find an amicable resolution to the appeals made by riders Anush Agarwalla and Sudipti Hajela against the Single Bench Judgement. The full Judgement of the Division Bench has not yet been uploaded on the Court website.
Image; Created for representation purposes only with aid of Google Gemini
