The president of the suspended Indian Olympic Association (IOA), Vijay Kumar Malhotra, has sought further clarification and time from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) following its strong response to the amendments of the IOA Constitution.
“I am in consultation with all the members of the IOA,” said Prof. Malhotra here on Friday.
As part of the disciplinary sanctions, the amended Constitution of the IOA suggests that persons charged in cases of crime or corruption be kept out and automatically expelled if proven guilty.
It had possibly been derived from the government’s draft Sports Development Bill, which had also been sent to the IOC for its opinion.
Prof. Malhotra conceded that the IOC’s communication regarding the constitutional amendments of the IOA would have far reaching ramification, and thus clarification had been sought to have a clear road map.
The IOA has also asked details from the IOC regarding who would be attending the Extraordinary General Meeting, scheduled to be held on August 25, to ratify the amendments of the IOA Constitution.
Apart from the strong ethics part, the IOC has sought the reduction of three votes to two for the National Sports Federations and advised one vote for State Olympic Associations, instead of two.
However, the IOC has left it to the IOA to decide regarding the age limit for its members, but suggested that it apply to all rather than just three office bearers, president, secretary and treasurer.
“It is not necessary to have three representatives per Federation and two per State Olympic Association.
“It is enough to have two representatives per Federation (to ensure the voting majority for the federations governing sports on the programme of the Olympic Games as required in Rule 28.3 of the Olympic Charter) and only one representative for the rest of the members.
“In terms of good governance, this would make the General Meetings much more workable,” commented the IOC.
Among others, the IOC had also suggested the reduction of the number of Executive positions of the IOA from 40, and given a broad example of 19.
