Faced with the threat of disaffiliation from its parent body, the IOA today said it had not violated the Olympic Charter nor the Government guidelines in its election process and the International Olympic Council should not take action against it.
Talking to presspersons here, IOA acting chief V. K. Malhotra said the Election Commission of retired judges of the High Court has not found any violation of rules in the controversy-marred elections to be held on December 5.
“These elections are not violating any of the three Codes — Olympic Charter, Sports Code and the Delhi High Court order. No nominations have been rejected by the Election Commission. We hope the IOC does not take action against us since there are no violations,” Malhotra said.
“For the first time in IOA history, elections are being held under a three-member Election Commission of retired High Court judges and there was no rejection of nomination papers on any pretext. The whole exercise is very fair, free and transparent,” he said.
In its latest letter, the IOC made it clear it would propose disaffiliation of IOA in its Executive Board Meeting on December 4-5 if the national body goes ahead with elections under the Government’s Sports Code.
Malhotra, however, said “as things stand” there was no interference from the Government and the election process was held in keeping with the IOA Constitution and Olympic Charter.
“For the first time, we had a meeting with the Sports Minister and it was a constructive meeting and we are hoping to sort out the issue,” he added.
“We are confident that the IOC will appreciate IOA’s point of view and will not do anything which will have an adverse impact on the Olympic movement in India,” he added.