Supreme Court Approves Timeline For Polls To IOA Executive Council

The Supreme Court on Monday approved the timeline for amendment of the draft constitution of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and its elections, as agreed in the meeting with the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne, Switzerland on September 27. A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli said former apex court judge LN Rao will be at liberty to take an "untrammelled holistic perspective" of the matter while drafting the amendments to the IOA constitution subject to the caveat that it is necessary to ensure the draft amendment has the approval and concurrence of the IOC so as to obviate any complication in the future.

It said, "Having regard to the conclusion which have been arrived at in the course of the meeting at Lausanne, suggested timeline have been indicated in the note submitted by the union government for completing the dual process of amending the constitution of IOA and completing the holding of the election of the IOA".

The bench noted, as per the suggested timeline, the whole process has to be completed prior to the IOC meeting in December, 2022.

It also noted the minutes of the September 27 meeting indicates that the first step is amendment of the IOA constitution so as to introduce governance reforms.   "Both IOC and OCA (Olympic Council of Asia) have agreed to work with the former judge appointed by this court on the draft revised constitution. Once the constitution is finalised, it is to be formally adopted by the general assembly of the IOA," the bench said. It added the second step would be conducting the IOA election in accordance with the newly approved constitution under the supervision of the former judge of the apex court.   The top court said a copy of the order will be placed