A Division Bench of the High Court of Delhi suspended a Single Judge’s judgement appointing an ad hoc administration committee to run the Equestrian Federation of India (EFI). The Division Bench has also ordered the reinstatement of the Executive Committee members who had been removed from office by the EFI Secretary-General Col. Jaiveer Singh under some pretext or the other.
Hearing appeals preferred by Col. Singh and the Chandigarh Horse Riders Society against Justice Tara Vitasta Ganju’s May 21 judgement, Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora on Wednesday accepted the alternative prayer of the Rajasthan Equestrian Association and reinstated the entire Executive Committee.
The counsels appearing for Col. Singh and the CHRS opposed the appointment of the ad hoc administration committee claiming that EFI would be disqualified by the International Equestrian Federation (FEI). They argued that such disqualification may prejudice India’s chances of competing in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games equestrian competition.
Their argument was bolstered by the Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma, who said that the government feared that the appointment of an ad hoc administration committee could lead to EFI being suspended by the FEI. The court thus suspended Justice Tara Vitasta Ganju’s judgement till the completion of the Olympic Games in Paris.
The Division Bench also took note of the serious findings of manipulations of the minutes of the EFI Extraordinary General Meeting by Col. Singh and appreciated that he cannot be allowed to run EFI unilaterally. The court refused to entertain objections by Col. Singh’s counsel against the reinstatement of the entire executive committee.
In July 2022, under the garb of following the National Sports Development Code of India 2011, a desperate Col. Singh removed several elected members of the Executive Committee and the selection committee to convince the court to permit elections. It did not matter to him that EFI was left with no quorum to conduct executive committee meetings.
Brig. SS Kashyap (Vice President, Development), Col. Vikas Thakur (Member-Medication Control & Equine Welfare), Lt. Col. DP Nanda, Mr. Sanjay Gupta and Col. Nanda were removed because new statutes did not provide for their positions. Col. Charanjit Sohal, Col. Tarsem Singh and Col. PP Singh were removed as they had ‘completed’ their four-year term.
Besides, Col. Singh informed EFI’s Acting President Col. Jagat Singh (Vice President, Technical) that he would cease to hold office as per the rules of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) for Government servants. The DoPT itself had not written to Col. Jagat Singh that he was in violation of its order.
Rajasthan Equestrian Association’s Bonnie Dundlod, who moved the Delhi High Court in 2019 to stay the EFI elections alleging that the EFI was in violation of the National Sports Development Code of India 2011, welcomed the reinstatement of the Executive Committee and hoped that Col. Singh would no longer run EFI unilaterally.
For the record, as of now, India have sealed a quota in the dressage event for Paris 2024, with Anush Agarwalla as front-runner to represent India. Selection criteria for the same should emerge soon.