Sports ministry suspends new Wrestling Federation of India body, says it blatantly disregarded norms

The Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports on Sunday suspended the newly-elected body of the Wrestling Federation of India, ANI reported.

This was after newly-elected president Sanjay Singh announced that U-15 and U-20 nationals for wrestling would take place in the Nandini Nagar area of Uttar Pradesh’s Gonda district before the end of the year.

The ministry said that the announcement was hasty, and did not give enough notice to the wrestlers who were to take part in the national championships. It said that such decisions are to be taken by the federation’s executive committee, CNBC-TV18 reported.

“...Minimum notice period for EC [ Executive Committee] meeting is 15 clear days and quorum is of 1/3rd of representatives,” it said. “Even for Emergency EC meeting, minimum notice period of 7 clear days with quorum requirement of 1/3rd of representatives.”

The ministry noted that the work of the federation was being carried out from the premises controlled by its former office-bearers, which was where several wrestlers were allegedly sexually harassed earlier. It added that the new wrestling body seemed to be in complete control of former office-bearers, in violation of the Sports Code.

The sports ministry said that the decisions made by the newly-elected executive body “demonstrate a blatant disregard for the established legal and...

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