The Delhi High Court bench on Friday allowed wrestler Vinesh Phogat to participate in the selection trials for the 2026 Asian Games scheduled for May 30-31.
A bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia, in its ruling on Saturday, observed that the Wrestling Federation of India’s (WFI) selection criteria for the Asian Games – which restricted eligibility to wrestlers who had won medals in 2025 while ignoring previous performances – was exclusionary.
The court said it left no discretion to the federation to consider accomplished sportswomen like Phogat, who took leave due to maternity leave, which also represented a major departure from previous practices.
In its 15-page order, the court noted that Phogat’s exclusion from selection trials was directly related to her leave and temporary eligibility requirements.
She noted that her maternity and recovery period coincided with the timing of the tournaments necessary to meet the eligibility criteria, which affected her ability to qualify for the trials. She said that Phogat, being a world-renowned athlete, brought many laurels to the country.
“The standard for selection trials, as adopted in the policy and circular, represents a significant deviation from the previous practice. The National Training Camps Guidelines dated 29.04.2025 issued by Respondent No. 1 clearly state that the Respondent has the discretion to select outstanding players for the Asian Games without participating in training to be eligible for the trials,” the court said.
“In view of the above, it is clear that the policy and circular are exclusionary in nature as they do not give respondent No. 1 any discretion to consider prominent players like the appellant in the light of sabbatical leave taken on account of maternity leave. It is a well recognized principle of law that on account of maternity, a woman cannot be prejudiced in any way with respect to her employment, career, rank and promotion during the period of maternity leave,” it added.
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The bench also said that WFI’s bid had caused notice barring it from participating in local events, appeared “preconceived” and sought to reopen the settled cases.
She also described as unfortunate the observations made by the WFI in its May 9 notice, which declared Phogat ineligible to participate in domestic events due to the incident at the 2024 Paris Olympics that led to her disqualification and described it as a national embarrassment.
The court noted that these statements came despite the ruling of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which found that no wrongdoing had been committed on its part. I also noted that the comments appeared to be intentional and patently false, and should have been avoided.
“Such remarks are regressive and demonstrate the bad faith of Respondent 1 (WFI) by retaliating against the Appellant,” the order stated.
The court then ordered the WFI to video-record the trials and asked the Center to appoint independent observers from the Sports Authority of India and the Indian Olympic Association to oversee the process.
The observers have also been directed to submit their report before the sole judge hearing Phogat’s challenge to the Asian Games selection policy.
Earlier this year, the World Wrestling Federation established an Asian Games selection policy, and on May 6, it issued a circular restricting eligibility for the selection trials to medal winners of the 2025 National Senior Wrestling Championships, 2026 Fed Cup Seniors, 2026 National U-20 Wrestling Championships, and National U-23 Wrestling Championships, provided that the events are held before the trials.
The circular also made it clear that previous performances would not be taken into account, effectively making Phogat ineligible, as the qualifying period overlaps significantly with the sabbatical, return to training, pregnancy-related break and post-partum recovery period.
On May 9, the WWF also issued a notice banning Phogat from participating in domestic competitions till June 26. The WWF alleged indiscipline, anti-doping violations, weight-related disqualification for the 2024 Paris Olympics, and failure to complete the mandatory six-month notice period required for athletes coming out of retirement under United World Wrestling’s anti-doping rules.
Phogat then moved the Supreme Court through senior advocate Rajshekar Rao, along with advocate Ritwik Prakash, challenging the selection and notice policy, on the grounds that the previous WWF regulations governing selection for major international events, including the Asian Games, expressly reserved discretionary consideration in favor of high-profile wrestlers such as Olympic and World Championship medalists.
She added that the eligibility framework also failed to create a closed and inflexible mechanism for gatekeeping without any accommodations for maternity-related absence and postpartum recovery.
However, on May 18, a single judge refused to allow her to participate in the trials scheduled for May 30 and 31, prompting her to appeal to a division bench.
WFI’s attorney, Hemant Valper, argued that Phogat was not eligible to participate because she voluntarily retired from wrestling and did not compete in the required tournaments, making her ineligible under the February policy and May circular. He stressed that the World Sports Federation lacks the authority to grant exemptions from these rules and stressed that the circular applies equally to all athletes without targeting or discriminating against Foghat specifically.
Meanwhile, the Centre’s lawyer clarified that the Sports Ministry did not bar Phogat from selection trials, but it could not interfere in FIVB’s decisions, citing the potential international sporting ramifications. However, if competition is allowed, independent supervision and live broadcast of the trials would ensure transparency.
