Delhi HC dismissed the petition of two-time Olympic medallist wrestler Sushil Kumar. (Source: Express File) Delhi HC dismissed the petition of two-time Olympic medallist wrestler Sushil Kumar. (Source: Express File)

The Delhi High Court on Monday dashed the Olympic hopes of wrestler Sushil Kumar, refusing his plea to conduct a special trial against Narsingh Yadav to decide participation in the 74 kg freestyle competition at Rio. Sushil is a double Olympic medallist and a former world champion in the erstwhile 66kg category. Yadav won the 74kg bronze medal in the 2015 Worlds and, in the process, bagged the Rio quota.

READ: Has Sushil Kumar’s fabled career ended in court?

The bench of Justice Manmohan in his order held that there was no perversity the Wrestling Federation of India’s decision to send Yadav at the event. Pulling up Sushil for “belatedly” asking for a trial, the bench also noted that “petitioner being a wrestler himself would know that any direction to hold a trial at this stage would seriously jeopardize the chance of India winning a medal in the Olympics inasmuch as Yadav would have to halt his training midway.”

Watch Sushil Kumar’s Hope For Olympics Dashed

“In international arena of sports, medals are won not only by brawn but also by brain. The last-minute challenge to selection can disturb the mental preparation of the selected,” said the court, adding that asking for a trial “may be jeopardizing the chances of the selected candidate to win, having disastrous consequences for national interest.”

“The Petitioner’s argument — ‘All I am asking is a trial for the Rio Games’ — makes for an interesting sound-byte, but the issue is whether this argument is legally tenable,” observed the court.

READ: Time away from competition went against Sushil Kumar, says Abhinav Bindra

The court accepted the opinion of the WFI that Yadav was a “better” candidate for the Olympics scheduled in August.

“On consistent current form, the opinion of WFI that Yadav is better is not unreasonable or perverse,” held the court. Senior Advocate Pradeep Dewan had told the court that Kumar had not participated in any national or international event since 2014.

“Power and responsibility go hand in hand. The National Sports Federation cannot be held responsible for the performance of its athletes, if it does not have power to select them according to a flexible procedure as long as the same is fair, transparent, reasonable and consistent,” held the court.

The bench has also said that a Writ Court “will not interfere in the exercise of discretion of the National Sports Federation except where the discretion is shown to have been exercised in an arbitrary or capricious or perverse manner”.

The court accepted the arguments made by the WFI and Yadav regarding the “consistent” practice of sending the athlete who had won the berth to participate in the Olympics.

Taking note of the report of the WFI regarding selections for the last several Olympics, the bench observed that “without exception, only the quota winner has represented India in the Olympics without undergoing any trial”.

WFI VP faces perjury charges

Meanwhile, the HC bench also issued show cause notice to WFI Vice president Raj Singh for having filed a false affidavit before court. The court had been informed that Raj Singh had filed a “false affidavit” in which he had claimed that trial were held in 1996 for Olympic wrestling events and that the practice of sending athletes who secured the quota was “not consistent”. He had also claimed to have been the National coach of the country. Singh will have to appear before court on July 29 and face perjury charges.

“This court only hopes that the present litigation is not an offshoot of the internal politics of WFI in which a wrestler has been ‘led down the garden path’ by an office bearer and/or has been used ‘as a pawn’ to settle his own score either way,” the court has said.

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