Delhi High Court Flags 'Serious Disputes' In Functioning Of Equestrian Federation Of India, Stays Extraordinary General Meeting

The Delhi High Court has restrained the Equestrian Federation of India (EFI) from holding Extra-Ordinary General Meeting (EOGM) on Sunday, citing “serious disputes” in the overall functioning of the Federation.“It is evident that there are serious disputes about virtually every facet of the functioning and current state of affairs of the EFI,” Justice Sachin Datta said in an order passed on August 13. The Court stayed the notice dated August 02 by EFI Secretary General Col. Jaiveer Singh to convene the EOGM on August 17 and restrained the Federation from holding the same. The order was passed in a plea filed by the Rajasthan Equestrian Association seeking setting aside of the impugned notice for EOGM. It was contended that the EOGM was being held with the ulterior motive of disrupting the functioning of the EFI and without following the mandatory pre-requisites. As per Rajasthan Equestrian Association, since the then elected President- Lt. Gen Gopal R. indicated his inability to continue as the President of the EFI, the Executive Committee (EC) unanimously appointed Col. Jagat Singh as the Interim-President. Later, a suspension order was issued to Col. Jaiveer Singh by the EC vide which it was resolved to suspend him from the office of Secretary General with immediate effect.Impugning the notice, it was submitted that the decision to convene an EOGM was not even placed before the Executive Committee of the EFI.Ruling in favour of Rajasthan Equestrian Association, Justice Datta referred to a decision by a coordinate bench on January 07 wherein it was noted that there were glaring discrepancies in the membership of State associations over club associations in the EFI. It further noted that the coordinate bench had constituted a 5-member Fact-Finding Committee to conduct a detailed investigation into the ground level realities of Equestrian sports in India. On this, Justice Datta said that while the exercise by the Fact- Finding Committee was underway, “there appears no rationale in seeking to further confound the uneasy state of affairs in EFI by convening an EOGM.”The Court observed that the EFI is not only “faction-ridden”, there are also discrepancies as regards its membership.“There is prima facie merit in the contention that in terms of Article 012, it is incumbent that holding of an EOGM is an aspect that must be considered/ placed before the Executive Committee by the Secretary General,” the Court said.It added that there was an omission in giving the mandatory 30 days notice period in terms of Article 011 of the EFI Statute.“Considering the aforesaid circumstances, at this stage, on a prima facie conspectus, the impugned notice bearing No.072/EFI/EOGA/2025 dated 02.08.2025 purported to convene the EOGM on 17.08.2025 is stayed. The concerned respondents are restrained from holding an EOGM on 17.08.2025,” the Court said. Rajasthan Equestrian Association was represented by Mr. Rajeev Dutta, Senior Advocate, along with Advocates Ashish Kothari, Balasubramanian Ramesh, Pratha Pant and Pratyush Singh- from Kochhar & Co. (Advocates & Legal Consultants).EFI was represented by Advocate Senior Advocate Pragyan Pradip Sharma, along with Advocates Vinajay Bhandari, Hardik Jain and Ishaan Phukan. Title: RAJASTHAN EQUESTRAIN ASSOCIATION v. EQUESTRIAN FEDERATION OF INDIA AND ORSCitation: 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 978Click here to read order

Delhi High Court Flags 'Serious Disputes' In Functioning Of Equestrian Federation Of India, Stays Extraordinary General Meeting

Nupur Thapliyal

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