Tanisha Rana
Published on: November 03, 2022 at 21:31 IST
The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) executive committee elections will take place on December 10, according to a new schedule authorised by the Supreme Court on Thursday.
The new schedule was provided by retired Justice L Nageshwara Rao.
The distribution of the draft constitution to IOA members was authorised by a bench made up of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice Hima Kohli, allowing for its adoption at the Annual General Body (AGM) meeting scheduled for November 10.
The elections scheduled for December 10 were also given the go-ahead.
The resolution that will be addressed must be circulated to members seven days before the AGM, which is today, in accordance with the rules.
Before finalising the draft of the amended constitution, Justice Rao consulted everyone, including the International Olympic Committee (IOC), according to Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who also briefed the bench.
The IOC had given the national body until December 2022 in its September “final warning” to hold elections as soon as possible or risk suspension.
The IOA elections were initially scheduled for December 2021, however they were postponed due to a governance crisis.
As a result, the Supreme Court appointed Justice Rao in September to lead the effort to change the IOA’s Constitution and address its governance flaws, failing which the world sports organisation will ban the IOA.
The SC has now prohibited all courts nationwide from considering any petitions relating to the proposed executive committee elections or the draft constitution, and has stated that it will deal with all such complaints immediately.
The court set Justice Rao’s compensation at Rs. 20 lakh and instructed him to lay out the procedures for distributing the draft constitution to IOA members.
Justice Rao agreed to undertake a thorough process of drafting the constitution and was given this task.