CHIRAG KHANDAL vs EQUESTRIAN FEDERATION OF INDIA

Judicial Analysis Court Copy Headnote Facts Arguments Court observation

2023 Supreme(Del) 486

IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
GAURANG KANTH, J.
CHIRAG KHANDAL – Petitioner
Versus
EQUESTRIAN FEDERATION OF INDIA – Respondent
Review Petition No. 54 of 2023, W.P. (C) No. 16490 of 2022, W.P. (C) No. 1070 of 2023, W.P. (C) No. 1199 of 2023
Decided On : 07-03-2023

Advocates:
Advocate Appeared:
For the Petitioners: Nikhil Singhvi, Shikhar Kishore, Bilal Ikram, Milind Dixit, Parth Aggarwal.
For the Respondents: Kirtiman Singh, Prateek Dhanda, Waize Ali Noor, Manmeet Kaur Sareen, Vidhi Jain, Madhav Bajaj, Kunjala Bhardwaj, Yash Upadhayay, Vinayak Bhandari, Bhav Ninder Singh.

Headnote:(A) National Sports Development Code of India, 2011 - Amendments to Selection Criteria V-4 and V-5 - Equestrian Federation of India issued new selection criteria without constituting a valid Selection Committee under Article 15 of EFI Statute, leading to issues of fairness and transparency in process. (Paras 50-60)

(B) Equestrian Sports - Horse-rider combination essential for selection; any change in eligibility criteria post-selection process is against the principles of natural justice. (Paras 56-66)

(C) The Court found that the EFI’s actions led to arbitrariness, resulting in the invalidation of the new selection criteria and review of petitions allowed for participation in coaching camps. (Paras 73-91)

Facts of the case:
The review petition challenged the legality of new selection criteria introduced by EFI, which did not follow statutory requirements, thus impacting athletes' chances to qualify for 19th Asian Games. The Petitioners, who had horses stabled abroad, argued for their inclusion in selection process while alleging bias in the EFI's recent amendments to selection criteria.

Findings of Court:
Court ruled that amendments made by EFI were void, lacked proper authority, and violated principles of fair selection. All Writ Petitions allowed permitting Petitioners to participate in trials and coaching camps.

Issues: Legality of amended selection criteria, fairness of EFI's selection process, and whether the previous order required modification based on new circumstances.

Ratio Decidendi: The Court emphasized compliance with statutory procedures and found EFI's changes during selection compromised fairness, handing undue advantage to specific candidates.

Result: Review petition and writ petitions allowed, requiring EFI to include athletes for consideration in upcoming Asian Games selection.

Table of Content
1. nature and structure of equestrian sports. (Para 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6)
2. selection process for asian games. (Para 7 , 8 , 9 , 10)
3. consequences of changes in trial scheduling. (Para 11 , 12 , 13)
4. arguments concerning merchant errors and qualifications. (Para 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 24)
5. legality of the selection criteria amendments. (Para 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 56)
6. transparency and conduct concerns of efi. (Para 60 , 61 , 62)
7. review of the previous court order. (Para 73 , 74 , 75 , 76)
8. final decision allowing participation in trials. (Para 90 , 91 , 92)

JUDGMENT :

GAURANG KANTH, J.

1. Vide this common judgment, this Court intends to adjudicate and dispose of following batch of Petitions that are based on common facts and deals with common questions of law:

(b) W.P. (C) No. 1070/2023, titled as Shashank Singh Kataria vs. Equestrian Federation of India and Another - The Petitioner (‘Mr. Shashank’) is seeking issuance of an appropriate Writ inter alia, directing the EFI to allow the Petitioner to participate in the upcoming CCI-2 - Long Events in Europe from March to April, 2023 and to consider the same as trials for the upcoming 19th Asian Games scheduled in China.

(c) W.P. (C) No. 1199/2023 titled as Yash Nensee vs. Equestrian Federation of India and Another - vide this Petition, the Petitioner (‘Mr. Yash’) is seeking issuance of an appropriate Writ inter-alia, directing the EFI to allow the Petitioner to participate in the upcoming Show Jumping Events in the United Kingdom from February to April 2023 and to consider the same as trials for the upcoming 19th Asian Games scheduled in China.

2. In order to have a better understanding of the case at hand, at the outset, it is important to examine the nature of Equestrian Sports.

3. The Equestrian sports consist of horses being used as a part of the game and the skill of the rider to control his horse is integral to the result amongst other things. Hence, the horse-rider combination is fundamental to all the disciplines of Equestrian Sports.

4. The Equestrian Sports popularly consist of 4 disciplines namely Dressage, Cross Country, Show Jumping and Eventing, which entail the following:

(ii) Cross Country is a discipline wherein riders are required to jump over 30-40 obstacles in a fixed period of time and suffer penalties for exceeding the time limit or if the horse refuses to jump over obstacles.

(iii) Show Jumping is a discipline wherein riders have to jump over multiple fences of different heights which have objects over them which can be knocked down and riders are evaluated on the basis of their technical jumping skills and penalized for exceeding the time limit specified or the number of objects knocked down by them.

(iv) Eventing is the fourth discipline and is a combination of other three disciplines and has a “short” format wherein the rider has to showcase the three events during a period of a single day and a “long” format which is conducted over a period of 3 days wherein dressage is conducted on the first two days followed by cross country and show jumping on the third day.

5. It may also be mentioned that different disciplines have different star ratings such as one star, two star etc. which are essentially pari materia to different levels wherein one star would be beginner's lev