Sports
Supreme Court legitimizes Rana-led NOC
The Supreme Court on Tuesday quashed Jivan Ram Shrestha’s claims that his NOC (Nepal Olympic Committee) was the legitimate body of the country.The Supreme Court on Tuesday quashed Jivan Ram Shrestha’s claims that his NOC (Nepal Olympic Committee) was the legitimate body of the country.
The Apex court annulled a writ petition filed by Shrestha who was elected as the president of NOC in 2015 under the supervision of International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Olympic Council of Asia (OCA). Shrestha-led NOC had filed a petition against seven defendants including the NOC led by Rukma Sumsher Rana. But a joint bench of justice Deepak Raj Joshi and Dambar Bahadur Shahi quashed all the writs relating to the NOC.
The NOC dispute roots back more than a decade ago after Rana-led group filed a case at the Supreme Court claiming that the 2007 election of NOC which elected Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan as its new boss was illegitimate. Pradhan had succeeded Rana at the helm of NOC. The dispute over the legitimacy of the two bodies again flared up in 2010 after the Supreme Court reinstated Rana-led committee but the Pradhan-led panel continued to establish their authority during international meets.
Shrestha was elected the NOC president in September 2015 after Pradhan’s second four-year term ended. The latest rift between two ever-warring parties re-surfaced in May 2017 after Lalitpur District Administration Office padlocked the NOC building following ministerial-level decision.