Boxing Federation of India postpones elections, say impossible to complete process within original time lines

New Delhi: Boxing Federation of India (BFI) on Wednesday postponed its election scheduled for March 28, saying it's "impossible to complete the process within originally planned timelines" after the Delhi and Himachal Pradesh High Courts directed the body to reinstate the names omitted from the electoral college.

"This is to inform you that the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Boxing Federation of India (BFI), which was scheduled to be held on 28.03.2025, stands postponed," BFI said in a notification to its member units.

The BFI added that the decision to postpone the AGM, during which election of the office bearers were to be held, was necessitated following the March 21 order by Returning Officer (Justice Retd) RK Gauba.

"The Ld. Returning Officer has observed that in light of the court orders and the resulting mandated additions to the electoral college list, it is practically impossible to continue and complete the election process within the originally planned timelines as per the Model Election Code," the notification stated.

The electoral college was finalised on March 13 while the window of nominations was from March 14 to 16.

In his order, Gauba noted that the two court orders "necessitates certain steps to be taken by BFI under the R&Rs and the Model Election Code." "Having regard to the fact that the Model Election Code prescribes the time-lines for the election process, it is rendered practically impossible, with above mandated additions to the Electoral College List, for the electoral process to be continued and completed under the extant Schedule." Both the Delhi and Himachal Pradesh High courts had stayed the March 7 order issued by BFI President Ajay Singh that rendered all those who are not elected members of their state associations ineligible to be members of the electoral college.

While the Delhi HC had asked the BFI to proceed with the elections, the Himachal HC had directed the federation to extend the date of nominations to enable the candidature of former Sports Minister Anurag Thakur, who was declared ineligible after the March 7 order.

BFI had challenged the the Himachal High Court's ruling but the appeal was rejected on Tuesday.

The elections, which have already faced multiple delays and controversies, were originally supposed to take place before February 2.

The BFI flung into action only after the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) appointed an ad-hoc committee, a move the national federation challenged in the Delhi High Court, which subsequently put a stay on the ad-hoc panel.