Sports federations in India often frame eligibility norms without adequate gender-sensitive safeguards. Discuss with reference to recent judicial interventions.

National Sports Federations (NSFs) enjoy wide autonomy to frame selection norms under the National Sports Development Code, 2011 [2]. Yet their "uniform" eligibility circulars rarely account for pregnancy and post-partum recovery, pushing women athletes to courts for relief that policy should have provided.

How the gender-sensitivity gap arises

• Uniformity without carve-outs: the Wrestling Federation of India's circular of September 7, 2026 restricted trial eligibility to medal winners of designated national tournaments, National Coaching Camp attendees and U-20 World Championship selectees — categories an athlete on maternity leave cannot satisfy [1].
• No return-to-play protocol: NSFs largely lack maternity leave, ranking-protection or re-entry clauses, in contrast to the statutory floor for working women under the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 [4].
• Governance blind spot: the Sports Code's good-governance conditions focus on elections, tenure and athlete representation, not on pregnancy-related safeguards [2].
• Benchmark deficit: the IOC's gender equality and inclusion agenda expects federations to protect athletes' careers across the pregnancy cycle [5].

Recent judicial interventions

• The Delhi High Court (September 2026) refused wrestler Vinesh Phogat an interim exemption, holding that the criteria apply uniformly to all athletes [1] — showing judicial deference to federation autonomy at the interim stage.
• Significantly, the Court held that pregnancy, childbirth and post-partum circumstances must be examined while testing the validity of the eligibility policy itself, and flagged the need for the WFI to frame maternity guidelines [1].
• Such review tests arbitrary classification against Article 14, but remains episodic and post-facto — an athlete may lose an entire season awaiting adjudication.

Courts can correct arbitrariness; they cannot substitute for policy design. The durable remedy lies in mandatory maternity and return-to-competition clauses within NSF constitutions, enforced through the National Sports Governance Act, 2025 framework and its National Sports Tribunal [3]. Embedding such safeguards would align Indian sports governance with substantive equality and the goal of genuine gender parity in sport.