Ramesh Budihal of India seen during 2025 Asian Surfing Championship at Mahapulipuram.
| Photo Credit: RAGU R
The High Court of Karnataka has ordered a high-level enquiry through a retired judge of the Supreme Court to find out reasons why Surfing Federation of India (SFI) violated the prescribed norms in the process of selection of athletes for the men’s surfing competition events at the ensuing Asian Games to be held in Japan from September 19 to October 4, 2026.
Though the Court found violation of selection norms in the fresh selection process undertaken by the SFI’s special selection committee (SSC) after the Appeals Panel found fault in constitution of earlier selection committee, it did not disturb the final list of selected surfers for the Asian Games by ordering a fresh selection process. The Court noted that altering the selection list at this last stage could prejudice India’s participation in the surfing competition.
Justice Suraj Govindaraj passed the order while partly allowing a petition filed by surfer Ramesh Budihal of Keralam, who challenged his exclusion from the main contingent. Budihal, a Bronze medalist at the Asian Surfing Championship 2025, had questioned the legality of the process by which he was chosen only as a first reserved surfer while fellow surfer Sivaraj Babu of Tamil Nadu was chosen as the second confirmed athlete.
Raveendran appointed
Finding serious departure from the prescribed selection norms by the SSC and the Executive Council (EC) of the SFI, the Court said that the violations need a thorough inquiry and appointed R.V. Raveendran, a former judge of the Supreme Court, as a one-man commission of enquiry to find out the reasons for deviation from the selection norms in placing the petitioner as a first reserved surfer and Mr. Babu as second confirmed athlete.
The Commission can recommend amendments to the selection norm to prevent future disputes, deadlock resolution, and federation bylaws, etc., the Court said while identifying 45 points in the SFI’s selection norms for the commission to examine. Neither the Court nor the commission would determine who is a better surfer but analyse only violation of norms, the Court made it clear.
Background of case
The dispute arose after the initial selection, which was challenged by Mr. Budihal and Surfing Federation of Kerala, was set aside by an Appeals Panel on June 16, 2026 by directing the SFI to constitute selection committee as per the selection norms and to consider performances of athletes from January 1, 2025 onwards.
Following this, the SFI set up SSC, which unanimously selected Kishore Kumar as the first confirmed athlete and Srikanth D., as the second reserved athlete. However, SSC could not take unanimous decision on placement of petitioner and Mr. Babu, and later it recommended conduct of a surf-off between them but one of the members of the SCC found this procedure was contrary to the norms and consequently resigned from the committee.
As deadline for selection of surfing team was approaching, the EC took an “executive call” to select Babu as second confirmed athlete and the petitioner as first reserve athlete.
However, apart from finding fault in SSC’s decision making process, the Court ruled that intervention of the EC was without authority under the norms, which only allows the EC to “ratify” provisional names approved by the selection committee.
Meanwhile, the Court expressed anguish that sportspersons, instead of focusing on competition, were forced into prolonged litigation due to lapses by the federation meant to serve them, and hoped that the task assigned to the commission would prevent recurrence.
Published – September 01, 2026 06:08 pm IST
