The Central Government informed the Delhi High Court on Tuesday that the Union Sports Ministry has revoked the suspension of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), which was imposed on December 24, 2023.

The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports issued an order on March 10, restoring the recognition of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) as the national sports federation for wrestling.

The order was presented today before a division bench comprising Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela, which disposed of an appeal filed by WFI against a single-judge order dated August 16 last year. 

The impugned order had reinstated the mandate of the ad-hoc committee appointed by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on December 27, 2023, to oversee and manage all activities of WFI.

In its appeal, WFI contended that neither the Ad-hoc Committee, which was reinstated by the Single Judge, nor the Federation was in a position to prepare and send the national team for the Senior Asian Championships, scheduled to begin on March 23 in Amman, Jordan.  

On March 6, the Union Government’s counsel informed the court that the government was in the process of reviewing the order suspending the WFI.

While disposing of WFI's appeal, the division bench observed that the single judge had explicitly stated that the ad-hoc committee would continue to function only as long as the Central Government’s suspension order remained in force. The bench further noted that the single judge had permitted the Centre to withdraw or review the suspension order if the circumstances required.

“Thus, the continuance of the ad hoc committee in terms of the order passed by the single judge was only till the order of suspension was revoked,” the Bench noted.

It said: “In view of the order passed (by Central Government) on March 10, nothing needs to be adjudicated in the instance LPA which is disposed of with a request to the single judge to expedite proceedings in the writ petition pending before it and to conclude the same as early as possible.”

The petition before the single judge was filed by wrestlers Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik, and Satyawrat Kadiyan, seeking a directive to prevent the Union Government from revoking WFI's suspension.