The Delhi High Court has allowed wrestler Vinesh Phogat to participate in the Asian Games 2026 selection trials scheduled to be held from May 30.
In a verdict delivered on May 22, a Division Bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia noted that Phogat could not meet the Wrestling Federation of India's (WFI) "exclusionary" selection policy only because she was on maternity leave and that motherhood cannot become a ground for exclusion or marginalisation of female athletes like Phogat.
"It cannot be denied that the journey of a female athlete through pregnancy and the post-partum period is one that is marked by extraordinary physical challenges, the magnitude of which is often insufficiently acknowledged within institutional sporting frameworks. We cannot remain oblivious to the physiological realities and disadvantages related to child birth that female athletes undergo during maternity," the Court said.
Notably, the Division Bench also slammed the WFI for issuing a "deplorable" show-cause notice to Phogat and termed the WFI's action as vindictive.The WFI notice had said that her disqualification from the Paris Olympics for being overweight was a "national shame".However, the Court took strong objections to the choice of words and said that it revealed mala fides on WFI's part.
"Such observations made in the SCN [show-cause notice] despite the award issued by CAS [Court of Arbitration for Sport], which clearly held that there was no wrongdoing on part of the appellant [Phogat], appear to be pre-mediated and are ex-facie misconceived and ought to have been avoided. Such observations are retrograde and show the mala fide intent of respondent No. 1 [WFI] by being vindictive against the appellant," the Court observed.
The Bench had made similar observations during the hearing of the case on May 22. It had also questioned the Central government over its inaction against WFI for issuing show cause notice to Phogat. “These [WFI officials] are the administrators of sports? What action have you [Central government] taken against them? Was the authority of the Department of Sports not aware that such kinds of notices were issued. If she is bringing laurels to the country, will you not give her a chance also? Has she committed any violations? Were you taken into confidence before this policy? This is absolutely a retrograde step and you are sitting silent,” the Court had orally asked during the hearing. It then proceeded to pass the present order allowing Phogat to participate in the trials.
The Division Bench passed the order on Phogat's appeal challenging a single-judge order refusing relief to her.Such observations (by WFI) are retrograde and show the mala fide intent of by being vindictive against the appellant (Phogat).According to reports, Phogat was barred from the trials as the eligibility for the wrestling trials was limited to medal winners of certain competitions held in 2025 and 2026.
Phogat did not compete in any of these events. She had announced her retirement following the 2024 Olympics but returned to wrestling in December 2025.The WFI issued a show-cause notice accusing Phogat of indiscipline, anti-doping rule violations and failure to comply with mandatory return-to-competition procedures after retirement.
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