Bombay High Court Upholds De-Affiliation Of Sharad Pawar-Led State Wrestling Association From WFI
The Bombay High Court on Monday (June 15) upheld the de-affiliation of the NCP(SP) chief Sharad Pawar led Maharashtra State Wrestling Association (MSWA) from the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI). The WFI had on January 1, 2023 decided to de-affiliate the MSWA and replaced it with the Maharashtra Rajya Kustigir Sangh (MRKS). The MSWA had therefore petitioned a division bench of Justice...
The Bombay High Court on Monday (June 15) upheld the de-affiliation of the NCP(SP) chief Sharad Pawar led Maharashtra State Wrestling Association (MSWA) from the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI).
The WFI had on January 1, 2023 decided to de-affiliate the MSWA and replaced it with the Maharashtra Rajya Kustigir Sangh (MRKS).
The MSWA had therefore petitioned a division bench of Justice Bharati Dangre and Justice Manjusha Deshpande, which has now dismissed the appeal.
"We are of the view that the conduct of the MSWA was highly objectionable and as the show-cause notice accused it of focusing on commercial interest by abdicating its function to conduct the National Wrestling Competition. The Disciplinary Committee has arrived at aconclusion that BS Landge (General Secretary) was responsible for embezzlement of a huge amount of grant sanctioned by the Maharashtra Government only on the ground that it was affiliated with WFI and he even went to the extent of misusing the name of WFI by signing a contract with private entity and collecting huge fund. The Disciplinary Committee also found that Landge had wrongly faked that a request was made for appointment of an Observer from WFI, but no response was received rather than the National Championship could not be organised by the MSWA, and it was conducted through local sports lovers in Maharashtra causing huge lot of embarrassment to the WFI," the bench noted in the order.
The judges held that the findings reached by the Disciplinary Committee were of substantial nature and as an affiliating body, WFI, in the wake of provision in its Constitution subjected the MSWA to disciplinary proceedings and disaffiliated it by affording an opportunity to it in the form of a show-cause notice and the response was called from the MSWA. The response was received from Landge, the bench opined, showed that there was no violation of principles of natural justice or that the procedure contemplated in law has not been followed.
MSWA had argued that the decision to de-affiliate it was taken by the General Council of the WFI as already an Oversight Committee was constituted by the Government of India after suspending the then WFI Executive Committee. However, the bench noted from the material placed on record that though the Executive Committee was suspended, the General Council of the WFI continued to exist even as an Oversight Committee was brought in place and therefore, its decision to cancel the MSWA membership could not be held to be illegal.
As regards the merits of the case, the judges said, "We may not be in a position to get into the merits of the matter, since as a writ court we are bound to examine only the decision making process and not the decision by itself and even though arguments are advanced by MSWA about the political vendetta being attempted to settle, in absence of any proof thereof or persons exercising such power or authority being impleaded as respondents before us, we refrain ourselves from accepting the said contention as advanced."
It would not be out of place to mention that before de-affiliating the MSWA, the WFI had in 2022, interfered with the elected body of the MSWA and had suspended its elected body. The said order was held to be "unreasonable, illegal and not in sporting spirit."
In his November 2022, order, Justice Sandeep Shinde had observed, "Decision of the Executive Committee of WFI was, not only in breach of principles of natural justice, but behind their back…the procedural fairness has been given complete go-by, before taking the impugned decision."
Factully, NCP (SP) supremo Sharad Pawar had headed the MSWA committee for over 40 years, till it was dissolved by WFI on July 4, 2022. The High Court in its November 2022 order, said that the elected body of the Association shall hold the office till its tenure comes to an end and shall carry on its day-to-day functions in accordance with its Constitution.
In its petition, the MSWA had said that in a meeting held on June 30, 2022 WFI's national executive committee, headed by then BJP MP from Uttar Pradesh Brijbhushan Sharan Singh decided to dissolve MSWA's committee citing failure to conduct certain tournaments. The decision was arbitrary, MSWA contended.
Appearance:
Senior Advocates Darius Khambata and Sharan Jagtiani along with Advocates Gaurav Mehta, Sankalp Sharma, Priyank Kapadia, Dixita Gohil, Pranjal Agarwal, Shweta Surana, Jatin Patil, Avanti Divam, Sameera Pawar and Tushar Pawar appeared for MSWA.
Senior Advocate Abhay Khandeparkar along with Advocates Neeta Masurkar and Ajinkya Jaybhave represented the Union of India.
Advocates Yash Momaya, Hemant Phalpher, Munaf Virjee and Tirtha Mukherjee instructed by AMR Law represented the WFI.
Senior Advocate Mihir Desai along with Advocates Ajinkya Udane and Vinayak Pandit represented the MRKS.
Case Title: Maharashtra Wrestling Association vs Union of India (Writ Petition 9607 of 2023)
Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Bom) 281