NEW DELHI: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has advised the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to hold their elections on the 19th of the same date.
In a letter to IOA President Narinder Batra, the IOC said that, following the necessary changes to the IOA Constitution, the elections should still take place before the end of January next year.
“As things stand at present, we have established that the IOA elections can no longer be held on December 19, 2021 as originally planned due to the court order. Unless otherwise stated in the court order, however, we understand that the UOA General Assembly may still take place in December 2021 with other agenda items unrelated to elections, “the IOC wrote in its communication to Batra.
“The elected General Assembly would then be rescheduled as early as possible and should take place no later than the end of January 2022 in order to respect the four-year election cycle in accordance with the IOA Constitution and the Olympic Charter.”
According to IOA sources, the main problem is the restrictive provision in Section 11.1.3 of the IOA Constitution, which requires candidates for the office of President and Secretary-General to have previously held the same office or to be elected to any of the five previous executive boards of the IOA .
“We have taken note of the court decision, which is of course respected. However, it is regrettable that such institutional and internal issues could not be addressed and resolved directly within the IOA, ”the letter reads.
The IOC made it clear that any constitutional amendments should follow due process and then be submitted to the IOC for approval.
“As you know, any potential proposal to amend the IOA Constitution should simply follow the due process under the IOA Constitution and be submitted to the IOC for prior approval and the IOA General Assembly for adoption.”
The Delhi Supreme Court suspended the elections to the IOA’s Executive Committee on a plea by senior lawyer Rahul Mehra.
Mehra has argued in his motion that the proposed elections, due to be held on December 19, are completely illegal, unsustainable and should not be held until the hearing.
