IOA elections to be held on December 10: SC

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed elections to the Indian Olympic Association to be held on December 10 and paved the way for a newly drafted IOA Constitution, prepared by former Supreme Court judge, Justice L Nageswara Rao, to be adopted at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) to be held next week.

The direction passed by a bench of justices Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and Hima Kohli came with a blanket ban against any courts from entertaining a challenge to the proposed Constitution or the election process.

The bench said, “No other court shall entertain any petition relating to the amendment of the constitution of the IOA or to the election to the Executive Committee of the IOA. All objections shall be submitted by any person or party before this Court alone.” The next date of hearing before the Court is on December 7.

The new draft of the Constitution was shared by justice Rao with the Court on Wednesday which brought the Olympic body in consonance with the National Sports Code. As per the draft prepared by the former judge, the Executive Council of the IOA will be a 14-member organ of which at least four members will be women. The amendments also provide for an Athletes Commission that will have two representatives, a male and female, in the Executive Council.

This Commission will select eight sportspersons of outstanding merit - four male and four female athletes respectively, who will have a vote each in the election to the Executive Council. The national sports federations will get two members with voting rights to represent at the AGM. As regards the sportspersons of outstanding merit, they should have been active till a year before filing application to be IOA member and should have won a medal at the Olympics, Commonwealth Games or Asian Games for India.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta who appeared for Centre told the Court that the amendments proposed by Justice Rao are agreeable to Centre and have found approval of the International Olympic Committee as well. He pointed out that as per the election schedule drawn by the former judge, the amendments need to be circulated to all members one week prior to the AGM fixed for November 10.

The bench facilitated this process by accepting the election schedule. It said, “There is a broad consensus in terms of the note submitted by Justice L Nageswara Rao that the elections should be held on 10 December.” The proposal is accepted.” The Court left it to the former judge to chalk out modalities for circulation of the proposed amendments to AGM members.

As per the election schedule approved by Court, the sportspersons of outstanding merit interested for IOA membership will have time till November 14 to apply and the names selected by Athletes Commission will be published on November 19.

Even the IOA represented by advocate Ankur Chawla welcomed the Court order and agreed to pay a sum of ₹20 lakh as honorarium to the former judge for conducting such a comprehensive exercise within a month after the top court entrusted him this task on September 22. Justice Rao had already conveyed his unwillingness to the Centre to accept any remuneration since the task was assigned to him by the Court in national interest.

The bench in its order said, “The Court appreciates the alacrity with which the assignment has been taken up in the national interest.” To compensate the team of lawyers who assisted Justice Rao in framing the IOA memorandum and Rules & Regulations after holding wide consultations with IOC, state sports associations, the Court left it to the former judge to fix their remuneration.

The orders came to be passed on a petition filed by IOA which approached the top court against an order passed by the Delhi high court on August 17 by which a three-member committee of administrators (CoA) was appointed to oversee the daily affairs of IOA. The HC passed the direction on a petition filed by sports enthusiast and senior advocate Rahul Mehra who complained that no elected body was in place at IOA as per the Sports Code requirement.

The non-holding of elections at IOA was viewed strictly by the global body IOC. It invited IOA for a joint meeting in September at Lausanne, Geneva to sort out the issue. The IOC had warned in a letter written on September 8 that if an elected body is not put in place, India will face strict action and the IOC session fixed in Mumbai next year will be shifted out.

The Court asked Centre to use its good offices with the international body and entrusted the day-to-day administration of IOA to the Secretary General, IOA Rajiv Mehta In its previous order of September 22, the Court said, “We request Justice (retd) L Nageswara Rao, former judge of this Court, to take up assignment in the interest of ensuring a fair and development-oriented approach to the future of Olympic sport in India.”

The Court had requested the former judge to place the roadmap on the amended Constitution and provide a schedule for holding of elections.

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