New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has granted major legal relief to celebrated Olympian grappler Vinesh Phogat, clearing her to compete in the upcoming selection trials for the 2026 Asian Games. Overturning a previous single-judge order, a division bench comprising Chief Justice D. K. Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia ruled that the current selection policy implemented by the Wrestling Federation of India is clearly exclusionary in nature. The court strongly noted that the federation’s guidelines completely lacked the administrative flexibility or discretion required to protect iconic, elite athletes returning to professional competition after a legitimate maternity break.
The high-profile judicial intervention ensures Phogat’s participation in the crucial domestic selection trials scheduled for May 30 and 31. To guarantee absolute transparency, the bench directed the WFI to mandatorily video-record the entirety of the selection proceedings. Furthermore, the court ordered the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports to deploy independent observers from both the Sports Authority of India and the Indian Olympic Association to oversee the trials in person and submit a comprehensive performance and procedural assessment report directly back to the judiciary.
The legal dispute arose after the WFI introduced restrictive circulars modifying its selection matrix, making it mandatory for wrestlers to secure medal placements in designated 2025 or 2026 domestic tournaments to be eligible for the Asian Games trials. This framework effectively locked out Phogat, who had been on a formal, notified sabbatical from professional sports since December 2024 to give birth to her first child in July 2025. While the international governing body, United World Wrestling, had formally cleared her to return to active competition effective January 1, 2026, the domestic federation declared her ineligible and issued a restrictive show-cause notice on May 9, accusing her of procedural indiscipline and anti-doping notice violations.
During the extensive arguments, the division bench pulled up the WFI counsel, emphasizing that motherhood is a milestone to be celebrated rather than a basis for institutional punishment or professional disqualification. The court observed that the grounds highlighted in the federation’s sudden show-cause notice appeared heavily pre-mediated and designed primarily to reopen closed past issues to deliberately stall her career. The bench maintained that granting her immediate permission to compete was vital in the interest of sportsmanship, equity, and fair play, protecting her right to earn a spot on the national squad based purely on physical merit.
