HC stays IOA President’s decision to remove VP Sudhanshu Mittal from Ethics Commission

The Delhi High Court Friday stayed an order issued by Indian Olympics Association (IOA) President Narender Dhruv Batra removing its Vice President Sudhanshu Mittal and others from various posts in the Ethics Commission. Justice C Hari Shankar, who conducted the hearing through video conferencing, passed an interim order staying Batra's May 19 order and sought responses of the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs, IOA and its president on the petition.

Batra's order dissolved the Ethics Commission, formed in 2017, and removed all its members. It discharges adjudicatory and dispute resolution functions and is headed by retired judges. Besides Mittal, the other members of the Commission are prominent persons being retired high court judges and senior civil servants who were also issued similar notices on May 19, the plea said.

Mittal approached the high court challenging the May 19 and May 25 decisions by the IOA president, relating to the removal of the members of the Ethics Commission and Arbitration Commission. The petition, filed through advocates Ankur Chawla and Jayant Mohan, said the action of the president was unilateral and arbitrary and the orders were bad in law as Batra has no power to either appoint or remove or reconstitute commissions under the memorandum and rules and regulations of the IOA.

The plea claimed that the president, by his unilateral and arbitrary action, has not only sought to interfere with the adjudication process in complaints pending before the commissions but has also intentionally and deliberately humiliated and embarrassed the retired judges. It said the president’s powers are limited under the Memorandum and Rules and Regulations, which only vests him with the power to recommend/propose for appointments and the same has to be ratified by the Executive Council and/or General Body of the association.

The plea said the members of the Ethics Commission were informed by Batra that their tenures have come to any end. It, however, said members of IOA Ethics commission are appointed for a tenure of four years and can only be removed by two-third members of the commission and later ratified by the Executive Council of IOA. Besides seeking to set aside the two orders, it has also sought to restrain the president from interfering with the working of already functioning commissions appointed by the Executive Council and ratified by the general body.

Mittal, who had been appointed as Member of the Ethics Commission of the Indian Olympic Association has also been elected as the Vice President of the Association by the General Body. The plea said the Indian Olympics Association is the official organisation recognised by the International Olympics Association to be sole in charge of all Olympics matters in India.

The petition comes amid a rift within the association as Mittal has given a complaint against Batra to the International Hockey Federation (FIH) accusing him of committing irregularities. However, on Friday, the FIH refused to take any action against Batra, stating that the incumbent did not breach the world body’s statutes during his election in 2016. Batra also reiterated that he had done no wrong during his elections as presidents of both IOA and FIH.