SC orders status quo on three-member COA

New Delhi: In an interim relief, the Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the status quo and said the Delhi High Court-appointed three-member Committee of Administrators (COA) will not take over the affairs of the Indian Olympic Association. A bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and C T Ravikumar took note of the submissions of […]

New Delhi: In an interim relief, the Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the status quo and said the Delhi High Court-appointed three-member Committee of Administrators (COA) will not take over the affairs of the Indian Olympic Association.

A bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and C T Ravikumar took note of the submissions of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and the IOA, that the world sports body does not recognise any un-elected bodies like the CoA and consequently, India may be barred from taking part in international sports events.

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“The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) is a unit of the International Olympic Association and they have their own rules and according to them, if any national-level body like petitioner IOA here is represented by a non-elected body then it is treated as a third party interference,” the law officer said.

Every country is bound by the rules of the international body, Mehta said, adding that the high court’s intervention may or may not be for valid reasons which can be gone into by the bench at a later stage. “But the moment they (CoA) takes over, India stands almost 99 per cent chance of being suspended from participating in any Olympic and international event,” the solicitor general said.

The CJI said that Justice Hima Kohli, the third judge of the bench, did not want to hear this case which originally arose from the Delhi High Court’s order.
The law officer said that the interim relief can be awarded by the two judges on the bench.