Indian Olympic Association must hold meeting in New Delhi, says HC

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 17

The Delhi High Court today ordered that the annual general meeting (AGM) of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) will be held in New Delhi on Sunday.

IOA had convened the meeting in Guwahati to hold elections of the executive. However, the Delhi High Court stayed the elections and has now ordered that the AGM will be held in New Delhi, at the IOA Bhavan, and will be chaired by a court-appointed judge.

Justice Manmohan and Justice Najmi Waziri gave this order while hearing on the petition by lawyer Rahul Mehra who pleaded that the IOA elections should not be held till the time the body’s constitution is in violation of the National Sports National Sports Development Code of India (NSDCI).

Further, the only agenda of the meeting was to get the IOA constitution aligned as per the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and NSDCI. Also, Sunday’s meeting will be recorded on video and only authorised persons will be allowed to attend. The court has also directed IOA president Narinder Batra and secretary general Rajeev Mehta to send their respective voters’ list to finalise the list of members.

In his petition, Mehra has pleaded that the age and tenure guidelines should be applied to all executive committee members and not just the office-bearers among other things. Importantly, the plea also seeks a clause that the person seeking re-election must get a two-third majority of votes to continue.