Delhi High Court declines to reopen India’s YOG equestrian selection despite earlier minutes naming petitioner, urges EFI to clarify selection rules

The petitioner, a 16-year-old international show-jumping athlete, sought selection to represent India at the Youth Olympic Games, Dakar, 2026.

The Equestrian Federation of India (“EFI”) communicated its Selection Criteria to the petitioner on 28 December 2025 and uploaded it on its website on 8 May 2026.

EFI initially selected respondent no. 5 and placed the petitioner as reserve rider on 10 August 2026.

During the proceedings, authentic minutes dated 13 May 2026 were produced, recording the petitioner’s selection at that stage.

1. Whether the review process culminating in Selection Decision-II retrospectively altered the selection criteria by introducing 8 May 2026 as the commencement date and excluding the petitioner’s earlier qualifying scores.

2. Whether the Selection Committee minutes dated 13 May 2026, recording the petitioner’s selection, invalidated or materially affected the subsequent selection process and Selection Decision-II.

The Court applied Clause 3.2 of Article 15 of the EFI Statute, under which selection criteria are required to be approved by the Executive Committee, promulgated to EFI members, uploaded on the website, and thereafter strictly adhered to; amendments must be recorded and approved in the prescribed manner.

It also applied the principle against retrospective alteration of selection rules, namely, that a selection authority cannot change the governing criteria after candidates have been assessed under an earlier notified criterion.

The Court considered Article 8 of the FEI Regulations for the Youth Olympic Games, which distinguished the deadlines for national eligibility, submission of COCs, and final entries, with the final entry deadline being 25 September 2026.

It further relied on Anush Agarwalla v. Ad-Hoc Committee for Governance of Equestrian Federation of India & Ors., 2026 SCC OnLine Del 4965, for the principle that, where an impending sporting-event deadline makes a fresh selection exercise logistically impracticable, the Court may decline interference in the larger interest of the sport and the national team.

The Court found no documentary basis for treating 8 November 2025 as the commencement of an eight-month selection window; that date merely related to the FEI Jumping World Challenge through which riders obtained their COCs.

Since the Selection Criteria was first uploaded on 8 May 2026 and riders were expressly asked on 10 June 2026 to submit their latest results up to 25 July 2026, the Committee’s assessment of performances during that period, together with one COC result for each rider, was not a newly introduced criterion but the methodology communicated to the eligible riders.

The forwarding of earlier results by the petitioner’s father did not establish an assurance or legitimate expectation that every result would be counted.

Although the minutes dated 13 May 2026 genuinely recorded the petitioner’s selection, they were prepared when only the petitioner and one other rider had expressed an intention to participate and before all eligible COC holders were subjected to a common comparative process.

The subsequent long-list process, in which all seven eligible riders submitted recent results and participated, superseded the preliminary recommendation.

Given the imminent 25 September 2026 entry deadline and the logistical difficulty of restarting an equestrian selection process, the Court declined to order a fresh exercise.

The challenge to the exclusion of results preceding 8 May 2026 and to the selection of respondent no. 5 was rejected; the impugned Selection Decision-II was not interfered with.

The petition and pending applications were disposed of.

The Court nevertheless advised EFI, for future selection processes, to prescribe clear selection windows and timelines and to define more specifically how factors such as recent performance, consistency, competition level, and overall merit would be assessed.