No relief for Vinesh Phogat from Delhi High Court

Vinesh Phogat’s one last effort to appear for the Asian Games selection trial was dashed on Monday after the Delhi High Court denied her any immediate relief.

Hearing her plea, Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav said that he will hear the matter in July.

“Unnecessarily, there is no point in allowing you to participate and then tell you that it was a nullity,” the Court remarked.

Senior Advocate Rajshekhar Rao, representing Vinesh, informed the court that “there was something more than meets the eye” and that the Court may allow her to participate in the trials, subject to the outcome of her challenge to the new selection policy and circular issued by the WFI.

He also informed that the show-cause notice was issued just 12 hours before the National Open Ranking Tournament in Gonda for which Vinesh had registered in women's 57kg category. 

The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) issued a show-cause notice and barred Vinesh from competing until June 2026 for indiscipline, anti-doping rule violations and failure to comply with mandatory return-to-competition procedures after retirement.

The Bench allowed Vinesh to file a detailed reply to the show cause notice and also directed WFI to take the notice to its logical conclusion by the next date of hearing on July 6.

The selection trials for the Asian Games will be held in New Delhi on May 30.

The Court also noted that if a decision is taken by the WFI, it must be brought on record.

Earlier, WFI had declared Vinesh ineligible to compete at the National Open Ranking Tournament in Gonda.WFI had changed the eligibility criteria at the last minute making only medallists from the 2025 Senior National Championships, the 2026 Federation Cup and the Under-20 National Championships eligible to compete.

Vinesh, who last competed at the 2024 Paris Olympics, claimed that she was cleared by the the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Testing Agency to compete from January 2026 onward.