The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought response from the Gymnastics Federation of India (GFI), the Delhi Olympic Association (DOA) and the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in a plea challenging the communication expelling the Delhi Gymnastics Association (DGA) from GFI.
The Vacation Bench of Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva, while issuing notice in the petition, slated the matter for March 16, 2023.
The instant petition has been filed by the Delhi Gymnastics Association (DGA) through Advocates Upender Thakur and Mohd. Akram challenging the notification dated 12.12.2022 issued by the GFI by way of which DGA was expelled from GFI and was deprived of the rights and privileges of affiliation to GFI including the right to participate in GFI events, which comprises sporting events pertaining to Gymnastics.
The plea highlighted that as the Junior Gymnastic National Championship (Artistic) is scheduled to be held in Kerala from December 30, 2022 to January 2, 2023 and the career of budding gymnasts from Delhi is at stake, the petitioner association sent a letter to GFI on 13.12.2022 requesting the federation to keep the expulsion order in abeyance from the time the petitioner association invokes the remedy for seeking review till the decision of the review proceedings.
During the course of the hearing, Advocate Upender Thakur, representing the petitioner association, submitted that the communication issued by GFI is in the teeth of sporting spirit and jeopardizes the sports of gymnastics in general and morale or career of the budding gymnasts from Delhi in particular. Contending that the team was selected for the upcoming Junior National Gymnastics Artistic Competition to be held in Kerala just before the expulsion notice was issued, he prayed for permitting the gymnastic team already selected for participating and competing in the said event, in the interim.
At this juncture, the counsel representing GFI submitted that with a view to not prejudice any young athlete who has been selected, the federation is willing to accommodate a Team-B from the Delhi State if the petitioner association forwards the list of the selected team in the prescribed format within two hours, said athletes would be permitted to participate in the aforementioned event as Team-B from Delhi.
In light of this submission, the Delhi gymnasts associated with the petitioner association are permitted to participate in the upcoming Championship as Team-B. The court, however, clarified that the participation of the team selected by the petitioner as Team-B would be without prejudice to the rights and contentions of the parties and only for the purposes of this Championship which is to commence from 30.12.2022 and shall not be treated as a precedent.