Dressage pick for Paris Olympics Games: Delhi High Court ruling likely today
The court indicated that it would pass orders on Wednesday, since its June 28 order restraining EFI from sending Anush Agarwalla’s name to the IOA was in operation till Tuesday
New Delhi: The Delhi high court is expected to deliver on Wednesday its verdict in dressage rider Shruti Vora’s plea seeking to set aside Equestrian Federation of India (EFI)’s selection criteria for the Paris Olympics and the consequent selection of dressage rider Anush Agarwalla for the Games.
A bench of justice Sanjeev Narula reserved its judgement on Tuesday after hearing arguments of both sides. The court indicated that it would pass orders on Wednesday, since its June 28 order restraining EFI from sending Agarwalla’s name to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) was in operation till Tuesday.
On June 28, a vacation bench of justice Mini Pushkarna had asked EFI to hold its hand regarding sending Agarwalla’s name and had posted the matter for July 1 before the roster bench. On Monday, the court had said that the stay would continue till the next date of hearing – July 2.
In her plea, Vora had asserted that EFI’s criteria was not fair and suffered from inherent discrimination as it excluded all the other dressage riders from consideration, apart from Agarwalla.
As per EFI’s selection guidelines released in February 2024, in case of multiple contenders meeting the criterion, “the athlete with the highest average in Grand Prix out of the best 4 events in the past one year shall be chosen to participate.”
Agarwalla averaged just 0.532 points more than Vora, according to EFI. His four MERs are 67.936% (Wiesbaden, May 2024), 68.261% (December 2023 in Mechelen), 67.152% (December 2023 in Frankfurt), and 67.804% (October 2023 in Wroclaw).
“The action of the Respondent No.1 to, somehow, make the basis of selection to the Olympic event on the basis of retrospective scores instead of present and recent performances is in itself illogical, arbitrary, irrational and in direct contravention of principles of natural justice,” the plea read.
In her petition, Vora represented by senior advocate AM Singhvi and Major Nirvikar Singh contended that the selection criteria dated 22.02.2024 published by EFI after India secured a spot for Paris on 19.02.2024 wrongly gives weightage to previous years’ scores than considering prospective performance and scores of the athlete immediately prior to the Olympics event in order to favour Agarwalla. The senior lawyer further stressed that the criteria for selecting the participants as mandated by the impugned selection criteria is arbitrary, irrational, discriminatory and against the international practices.
EFI, represented by senior advocate Jayant Mehta, in its affidavit contended that its selection criteria in its application was neither perverse nor arbitrary. It contended that setting aside the criteria would prove to be detrimental in national interest. Mehta also told the court that the letter had to be sent from India by July 8, otherwise the country would lose its slot.
The union sports ministry in its affidavit filed through standing counsel Arunima Dwivedi and advocate Pinky Pawar stated that any change in the selection policy when the Paris Games was three weeks away was not advisable and would be detrimental to the athletes representing the country.
Agarwalla in his counter affidavit submitted that Vora had now belatedly raised objections on June 28 only when his name was recommended by EFI for Paris, and in furtherance of the fact that some of her recent performances in events where he as well as many of the internationally recognised athletes chose not to participate, were above the cut-off of 67%.
