Asian Games 2026: Delhi High court dismisses Anush, Sudipti's petition against Equestrian team selection

The Delhi High Court, on Monday, dismissed the writ petitions filed by Anush Agarwalla and Sudipti Hajela against the selection of teams by the Equestrian Federation of India (EFI) for the upcoming 2026 Asian Games.

The bench led by justice Mini Pushkarna upheld the EFI's selection process, noting that the selection criteria has been applied fairly and that there was no "arbitrariness or perversity" in the process.

"The courts do not have any expertise to get into the selection and finalisation of players for participation at the international level. This Court is conscious of the fact that any such findings can be interfered with only if there is any perversity or arbitrariness in the findings arrived into by the Federation concerned. However, I do not find any such arbitrariness or perversity in the such order," the order read.

Agarwalla and Hajela, both of whom were part of India's gold medal winning team at the Hangzhou Asian Games three years ago, had challenged the team list announced by EFI's Ad-hoc committee earlier this month.

Both of them were named as reserve riders in the contingent with Agarwalla as first reserve and Hajela as second reserve.