Delhi HC dismisses writ petitions of TT players Manush, Swastika

NEW DELHI: India table tennis players Manush Shah and Swastika Ghosh’s writ petitions challenging their exclusion from the country’s Commonwealth Games squad were on Monday dismissed by the Delhi High Court.

Manush and Swastika had approached the court after the Committee of Administrators (CoA), running the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI), had excluded them from the final CWG squad announced earlier this month. “I was told by our lawyer that our case has been dismissed,” Manush’s father Utpal told PTI.

The selectors did not include Manush in the men’s team although he was in the top-four as per the criteria set by the CoA. The men’s squad includes Sharath Kamal Achanta, Sathiyan

Gnanasekaran, Harmeet Desai and Sanil Shetty, with Manush on standby.

Swastika, 19, was named as standby with the revised women’s squad comprising Manika Batra, Diya Chitale,

Reeth Rishya and Sreeja Akula. Archana Kamath, the second highest-ranked Indian player at 66th after Manika Batra (39th), too had moved the court after being excluded from the India team for the upcoming Commonwealth Games.

Her case will come up for hearing on June 22 at the Karnataka High Court. Archana was initially included in the squad as an ‘exception’ since she did not meet the selection criteria laid down by the TTFI, but was suddenly dropped by the CoA to make way for Diya. Interestingly, Diya also had moved the court after being initially excluded from the squad.

Manush and Swastika had approached the court after the CoA had excluded them from the final CWG squad