Justice Viswanathan recuses; hearing on plea against HC’s refusal to interfere with equestrian team selection deferred to Friday

The hearing on a petition challenging the Delhi High Court’s refusal to interfere with the non-selection of riders Anush Agarwalla and Sudipti Hajela in India’s dressage team for the upcoming Asian Games in Japan was on Thursday deferred by a day as Justice KV Viswanathan of the Supreme Court recused from the case.

As the matter was called for the hearing, Justice Viswanathan said he would recuse from the hearing. The Bench, which also included Justice Alok Aradhe, ordered the matter to be re-listed before an appropriate Bench to be decided by the Chief Justice of India.

Later, the matter was mentioned before the senior-most Bench available—the Bench led by Justice A. Amanullah—which allowed it to be listed on Friday.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear on Thursday the petition challenging the Delhi High Court’s order refusing to interfere with the non-selection of the two riders in India’s dressage team for the Asian Games to be held in Japan from September 19 to October 4.

On July 6, the high court had refused to interfere with the non-selection of Agarwalla and Hajela, upholding a single judge’s order denying relief to both riders who were gold medal winners from the Asian Games 2022.

They had moved the high court against the selection decisions made by the Equestrian Federation of India (EFI). However, dismissing their appeals, the high court said while it did not find any infirmity with the preparation of the list of probables, the EFI had failed to duly comply with certain clauses of the selection criteria.

It concluded that a fresh trial was not possible at this stage and exercised “restraint” in the larger interest of sports and to avoid any adverse impact on the country’s prospects at the Asian Games.

The high court had asked the EFI to strictly comply with the selection criteria.

On June 29, the single judge had upheld the EFI’s selection process for the Asian Games dressage team, dismissing petitions filed by Agarwalla and Hajela.

The single judge had held that the selection criteria were applied fairly and there was no arbitrariness, perversity or procedural impropriety warranting judicial interference.

They had challenged the June 16 selection list issued by the EFI’s ad hoc committee for the dressage event at the Asian Games, where they were placed as reserve riders—Agarwalla as first reserve and Hajela as second reserve—while four riders were selected ahead of them.

The single judge, however, rejected all their challenges, including objections to the calculation of Minimum Eligibility Requirements (MERs), the interpretation of the selection criteria, the absence of additional selection trials and allegations of bias in the selection committee.