"The government has nothing to do with it. The Federation, which is an autonomous body, is the final authority. We stand by the National Sports Code and respect the autonomy of all sports federations," said Sonowal.
Double Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar moved the Delhi High Court on Monday to ask for a trial against Narsingh Yadav in his bid to represent India in the 74 kg category in the Rio Olympic Games.
This has come at a time when Sushil was kept out of the preparatory camp conducted for all the Rio bound grapplers at Sonepat, Haryana. dna had reported recently that in order to protect Narsingh from any injury in run up to the Olympics, Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) took no one, including Sushil, from the 74kg category in the camp.
It has been learnt that matter will now be heard in the court of Justice Manmohan Singh on Tuesday. Sushil has taken this step after getting no response from either prime minister Narendra Modi or sports minister Sarbananda Sonowal after he requested them to intervene in the matter. He kept waiting for an audience with sports minister for last three days.
Sonowal had earlier ruled out intervening in the Sushil-Narsingh selection battle by putting the ball in WFI's court.
"The government has nothing to do with it. The Federation, which is an autonomous body, is the final authority. We stand by the National Sports Code and respect the autonomy of all sports federations," said Sonowal.
Narsingh secured the quota berth in the 74kg category in the absence of an injured Sushil. However, the WFI rules clearly say that quota berth is for the country and not for any individual.
Sushil and his coach Satpal have been insisting that a trial should be held between the two before announcing a name. But WFI refused to hold trials since all the previous three times, when Sushil won Olympic quotas, no such requests were entertained for other wrestlers.
Also, WFI insiders fear that if such a trial is held in 74kg category then it would lead to similar demands from other grapplers in remaining seven weight categories.
"WFI can't be unfair to anyone. If Sushil's demand is accepted then wrestlers in all other weight categories will demand the same. How can we then say no to them?" said a senior official.
WFI is now citing a similar 2004 Delhi HC case where Delhi HC ruled in favour of Olympic quota winner Yogeshwar Dutt saying "he is the one who rightfully deserves the Games spot". This came just before the Athens Games when wrestler Kripa Shankar Patel had claimed to be a better competitor than Yogeshwar, who had earned the quota for India, and subsequently made appeals to hold trials to decide the finalist at the Olympics.
It is a similar story in 2016 but with a notable contrast. And that is Sushil's stellar record at the Olympics with back-to-back bronze and silver medals in Beijing 2008 and London 2012 respectively.
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