New Delhi [India], August 18 : The Delhi High Court has stayed the notice issued by the Equestrian Federation of India (EFI) for convening an Extraordinary General Meeting (EOGM) at Dhaula Kuan, Delhi.
Justice Sachin Datta passed the interim order in a petition moved by the Rajasthan Equestrian Association, challenging the legality of the notice issued by retired Col Jaiveer Singh, who claims to be the EFI's Secretary General.
Senior Advocate Rajeev Dutta, along with Advocate Ashish Kothari of Kochhar and Co., appearing for the petitioner, argued that the EOGM was being convened without adherence to the mandatory requirements of the EFI Statute. They submitted that the notice had not been placed before the Executive Committee and that several members had not even received intimation.
Supporting the plea, Senior Advocate Pragyan Pradip Sharma for EFI contended that the convening of the EOGM had bypassed procedural safeguards and amounted to a violation of members' rights under Article 007 of the Federation's constitution.
On the other hand, Senior Advocate Amit Sibal, representing the Chandigarh Horse Riders Society, opposed the application. He stressed that once the requisite number of requisitions had been received, the Secretary General was duty-bound to convene the EOGM, and the process could not be stalled.
After considering rival submissions, the Court noted that serious disputes persisted over EFI's governance and membership structure, which are already the subject of a fact-finding exercise by a committee headed by Justice (Retd.) Najmi Waziri. The Court also observed discrepancies in the notice period and failure to follow Article 012 of the EFI Statute.
"On a prima facie conspectus, there appears no rationale in seeking to further confound the uneasy state of affairs in EFI by convening an EOGM," the Court remarked while restraining the respondents from holding the meeting.
The matter will now be heard along with connected petitions on October 13.