Arundhati Choudhary moves Delhi HC over controversial selection by Boxing Federation

National women's boxing Champion Arundhati Choudahry has had her Writ Petition hearing accepted by the Delhi High Court. She moved the application as a last minute resort to get some relief prior to the World Boxing Championships to be held next month.

As it stands, the last date for entries to the AIBA World Women's Boxing Championships is November 10th. Arundhati is being represented by lawyer Sandeep Lamba in the hearing tomorrow. Times of India published a part of the petition which said "The petitioner is an international boxer who has won gold medal in the 5th Elite Women's National Boxing Championships 2021 and also won many national and international awards in boxing in the category of 70kg. The Boxing Federation has assured the petitioner for recommending her name in them World Boxing Championships to be held in December 2021. On November 7, 2021, the secretary general of BFI denied the opportunity to the petitioner, for recommending her name for the World Boxing Championships to be held in December 2021."

The hearing is set to take place on Wednesday, November 10th, 2021. If the court grants interim protection, then this will result in a delay in sending the final selection results to the AIBA Boxing Championship. One of the reasons behind why this controversy is taking place is that Arundhati was promised a match trial to be selected for the World Boxing Championships next month.

This was supposed to be against Olympic medalist Lovlina Borgohain. The main contention as per her lawyer is that the granting a direct qualification to Lovlina is violation of Article 14 of the Constitution. The dearth of same criteria for selection is lacking according to them and this shall be contended in court. It remains to be seen how the Delhi HC takes up the matter as time is of the essence to all parties involved.