Sports Code unacceptable for IOA polls: International Olympic Committee

The International Olympic Committee has rejected the decision to hold the upcoming elections of Indian Olympic Association under Sports Code of the government and made it clear that the polls will have to be held "exclusively" under the Olympic Charter and the IOA constitution.

The IOA-appointed Returning Officer, Justice (Retd) VK Bali had notified that the November 25 polls will be held under the Sports Code of government but the world body said that this was "unacceptable" as it would violate the Olympic Charter and autonomy of National Olympic bodies.

"... From a document signed by a member of the Election Commission on 5 November 2012 ... we have noticed with great concern that the so-called 'provisions governing the elections in the sports code of the Government of India' would be applicable for the IOA elections and would prevail in case of discrepancy with the provisions of the Constitution/By-laws of the IOA," the IOC letter said.

"As you certainly know from numerous letters we sent to the Government of India some time ago, this would be against the Olympic Charter and the fundamental principle of autonomy of the NOCs in their internal operations (including their elections) and, consequently, this would not be acceptable to the IOC/OCA," it said.

The strongly-worded letter was written jointly by IOC's NOC Relations Director Pere Miro and Olympic Council of Asia Director General and Technical Director Husain Al-Musallam and addressed to IOA acting president V K Malhotra and Election Commission Chairman S Y Quraishi.

The letter sought to insist on the IOC's stated stand against government interference in NOCs and asked those concerned to "make all necessary rectifications prior to the IOA elections".