MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court has upheld the de-affiliation of the Maharashtra State Wrestling Association (MSWA) led by NCP-SP chief Sharad Pawar, from the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI).HC upholds wrestling body’s de-affiliation of Pawar-led MSWAThe order was delivered on Monday on a petition of the MSWA, whose de-affiliation goes back to June 30, 2022, when the WFI’s national executive committee dissolved the MAWA’s executive committee headed by Pawar for almost 40 years. The decision was based on complaints by district wrestling associations that the MSWA had misused funds and failure to conduct scheduled wrestling tournaments.Following this, in July 2022, WFI wrote a letter, stating that the MSWA had been dissolved and that an ad-hoc body had been appointed for the daily administration of MSWA. The association challenged the appointment in the high court, which passed an order in favour of the MSWA in November 2022.Despite this, on January 1, 2023, WFI replaced MSWA with the Maharashtra Rajya Kustigir Sangh (MRKS), represented by advocate Ajinkya Udane. However, the central government, on January 21, 2023, issued a notification suspending all activities of the WFI and appointed an oversight committee to take over its day-to-day activities.Despite being suspended, the WFI on April 6, 2023, called an emergency meeting of its general council. On June 21, 2023, WFI’s returning officer (RO) invited MSWA to present its case, asking why the it should be allowed to nominate members to the electoral college. It was informed that during the emergency meeting held in April, another body was given affiliation for Maharashtra and the RO rejected MSWA’s claim to nominate members to the electoral college in July 2023.Aggrieved by this, MSWA moved court, stating that its de-affiliation was “arbitrary” as it was taken by the oversight committee and not the executive committee. The petition said that since the WFI was suspended at the time, the RO had acted beyond his power and capacity by affiliating another wrestling unit in Maharashtra.“It is a political vendetta and foul play of WFI against MSWA, so it is restricted from discharging its functions,” the petition stated, urging the court to quash the July 2023 order.