Delhi HC stays BFI's March 7 circular on election representation
Mar 19, 2025
New Delhi [India], March 19 : The Delhi High Court on Wednesday stayed the Boxing Federation of India's (BFI) March 7 circular, which mandated that only elected representatives from affiliated state units could participate in the federation's upcoming elections.
Justice Mini Pushkarna emphasised that while the election process and result declaration should proceed, the results would remain subject to the final outcome of the ongoing petition.
The court has also issued notices to the Centre and the BFI, granting them four weeks to respond to the petition. The next hearing has been scheduled for August, leaving the election results in a state of provisional validity until then.
The Delhi Amateur Boxing Association (DABA), as the petitioner, asserts through its plea that the Circular issued by the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) and the decisions made by the Returning Officer have unjustly excluded DABA from the Electoral College for the upcoming BFI elections, scheduled for March 28, 2025.
BJP MP Anurag Thakur was recently deemed "ineligible" to participate in the federation's election process because his nomination violated the March 7 circular. Consequently, his name was excluded from the final list approved by the Returning Officer.
Additionally, the Returning Officer's final electoral college list omitted the names proposed by the Delhi Amateur Boxing Association. The court, however, clarified that while the election process and result declaration could proceed, they would remain subject to the outcome of the ongoing petition.
Recently, the Delhi High Court has issued a stay on the Indian Olympic Association's (IOA) decision to establish an ad-hoc committee to oversee the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) until the latter conducts its elections.
The February 24 order, signed by IOA President P.T. Usha, had been challenged by the BFI as arbitrary and unlawful. The federation argued that, as an independent and autonomous entity, it is governed by its own constitution, rules, and regulations and has exclusive authority to regulate, promote, and manage boxing in India.
