EFI battle to control reins of power leads to standstill

The International Equestrian Federation may not have issued notice of cancellation of events in India, contrary to what some would like the fraternity to believe. It is quite possible that the fight for control of the Equestrian Federation of India between the Executive Committee and the Secretary-General Col. Jaiveer Singh has led to a standstill in equestrian activity.

As things stand, the FEI website lists 13 events scheduled to be held in India from July to December this year. These include two events in Bengaluru that have not yet been confirmed. In February, FEI Director (Governance & Institutional Affairs) confirmed that the Executive Committee had requested FEI to keep international events in India on hold for the time being.

Though the EFI Executive Committee met in May to draw up a schedule of competitions – allotting some international events to a club that is not even its member and without reaching out to the State Associations – the calendar has not been updated on the EFI website, which is perhaps not under the control of the Executive Committee. 

Be that as it may, the Executive Committee contends that Col. Jaiveer Singh made many decisions without consulting it, though the EFI Statues mandate that the Secretary-General will function under the directions of the EFI Executive Committee, President and Vice Presidents. A decision to have a forensic audit of the EFI accounts has been hanging fire.

One can only hazard a guess that both the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and the Indian Olympic Association have not stepped in to resolve the impasse because the High Court of Delhi is adjudicating a case between Rajasthan Equestrian Association, which has advocated Sports Code compliance, and EFI since September 2019.

Rajasthan Equestrian Association argued that the elections to the EFI Executive Committee were held in violation of the National Sports Development Code of India 2011 and its Model Election Guidelines. During the pendency of the case, Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports granted EFI exemption from complying with some provisions of the Sports Code.

In his judgement on January 7 this year, Justice Sanjeev Narula held that the Ministry had failed to record any substantive rationale for granting the exemptions and that the exemptions merely institutionalised an unequal system where clubs dominate governance, sidelining State and District Associations.

On May 21 last year,  appalled to find that the transcript of the EFI Extraordinary General Meeting held on September 17, 2023, placed on record with the Court by the EFI Secretary General did not match with the video recording of the meeting, Justice Tara Vitasta Ganju appointed a three-member Ad Hoc Administrative Committee to run EFI. 

Justice Ganju noted that the Court could not ignore that there was clear impropriety and the administration was being carried on in an arbitrary or capricious or perverse manner. However, a few days later, a Division Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora reinstated the 2019 Executive Committee and suspended Justice Ganju’s order.
 
The Executive Committee issued Col, Jaiveer Singh a Show Cause Notice listing many charges, including violating Department of Personnel and Training guidelines, making decisions without Executive Committee approval, unauthorised allocation of and changing venues of events, inviting foreign judges without authorization and financial irregularities. 

Since he first sought an extension of deadline to reply and then chose not to reply to the March 20 Notice, the Executive Committee decided on April 11 to suspend Col. Jaiveer Singh for 89 days. The Court-appointed Observer SY Quraishi, ostensibly in disagreement with the decision, advised the Executive Committee to move Court seeking ratification of the suspension order.
  
A Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela allowed the EFI Executive Committee to withdraw the application. It pointed out that the application ought to have been filed before the Bench that reinstated the Executive Committee rather than before the Division Bench. 

Curiously, the Observer has filed but two reports (on February 9, 2021, and August 17, 2022) in five and a half years since being appointed on November 15, 2019. The Equestrian fraternity would have expected him to be a bit more proactive on governance issues, especially since he chose to fly to Bengaluru to attend the Athletes’ Commission election.

Much depends on the Fact Finding Committee appointed by the High Court of Delhi in January this year. The Committee, chaired by Justice (retd.) Najmi Waziri is collating information for its report on infrastructure, clubs and State Associations but with little support from EFI.  The Ministry will have four weeks to make a reasoned decision on the Waziri Committee report.