Punjab and Haryana HC stays WFI polls till August 28
Aug 11, 2023
Panchkula (Haryana) [India], August 11 : Advocate Ravinder Malik, who is representing Haryana Wrestling Association on Friday confirmed that the Punjab and Haryana High Court has stayed the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) elections till August 28 which were initially slated for Saturday.
The stay order was imposed following a petition filed by the Haryana Wrestling Association (HWA) which challenged the move to allow Haryana Amateur Wrestling Association to cast votes in the WFI polls.
While speaking to ANI, advocate Ravinder confirmed the date till which the stay order on the WFI elections will be held and told the reason behind the High Court's stay order.
"The next date is August 28 till that time elections will be on stay. Two bodies from Haryana claimed that they are entitled to cast a vote for the Wrestling Federation of India election that was supposed to be held tomorrow. One body is the Haryana Wrestling Association which has filed a petition," Ravinder said.
"The second body is the Haryana Amateur Wrestling Association. In order to become eligible for WFI elections two conditions need to be met; first you need to be affiliated with WFI and the second condition is ---you need to be affiliated with the State Olympic Association," Ravinder added.
"We said in the court that we are an affiliated body of WFI and the Haryana Olympic Association, it is our right to cast a vote in the election. But when both parties went to Returning Officer, the officer said that the right to vote belongs to the Haryana Amateur Wrestling Association because it is affiliated with WFI and Haryana Olympic Association," Ravinder added.
The advocate went on to reveal that they challenged the order of the returning officer and due to this, the HC imposed a stay order.
"We challenged the order of the respectable returning officer and we told the high court that the Haryana amateur wrestling association is not affiliated with Haryana Olympic Association and it does not meet the criteria for voting. After listening to both sides the high court put a hold on WFI elections," Ravinder said.
