Kathmandu, May 22

Nepal Olympic Committee President Jeevan Ram Shrestha today welcomed the Supreme Court’s interim order against the government authorities to keep the letters of Home Ministry on hold saying the apex court decision paved the way for his team to prepare for the 13th South Asian Games.

Responding to the writ petition filed by the Shrestha-led NOC against 12 defendants — including the Home Ministry, Verdict Implementation Directorate of Supreme Court, Ministry for Home Affairs — the single-bench of Justice Sarada Prasad Ghimire on Friday issued the interim order to put all the letters issued by Verdict Implementation Directorate, Home Ministry and Metropolitan Police Range, Lalitpur on hold and ordered all the parties to attend the discussion on May 28.

Shrestha had filed the writ at the Supreme Court on May 18 after the Metropolitan Police Range, Lalitpur allowed the government-recognised Nepal Olympic Committee officials enter the NOC building. A group of Rukma Shumsher Rana-led committee — which had been aiming to take over the NOC building since the Supreme Court ruled in their favour five years ago — had locked the NOC building on January 21 and acquired the property since March 21.

Shrestha reiterated that his committee was the only body responsible to carry out Olympic-related works in the country and no other individual or organisation was allowed to run the Olympic movement. “Nepal will not be able to participate in any international events if we are not allowed to work as the athletes should go through our channel at international arena,” he said today.

Regarding the 13th South Asian Games, Shrestha said Nepal are already behind schedule and it was high time to start the preparation for the regional meet. “The recent illegal activities not only hindered the progress of sports fraternity, it also affected the preparation works of the South Asian Games,” he said. Nepal had received the South Asian Olympic Council flag during the closing ceremony of the 12th SA Games in India in 2015 and the SOAC meeting held in Kathmandu earlier this year decided to organise the 13th edition of the regional sporting extravaganza in 2019.

The SOAC meeting, scheduled for June 6-7 in Bhutan, is expected to discuss and finalise the number of events to be included in the SA Games. “The SOAC member nations are urging us to finalise the number of events as they want to start the preparations,” he added. “If we are not allowed to work freely, our athletes will be deprived of showing their skills and win medals on home soil.” This is the third time Nepal are organising the SA Games, which began in 1984 from Kathmandu with the name of South Asian Federation Games. Nepal also hosted the eighth SAF Games in 1998.

The NOC controversy dates back to the 2007 elections when a couple of officials from Rana-led faction moved the Supreme Court challenging the change of guard. Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan then served as the president for two terms before Jeevan Ram Shrestha defeated Umesh Lal Shrestha to become the NOC president on September 3, 2015.

The fresh row began after Ministry of Home wrote to its departments to implement the apex court decision and Rana-led faction tried to seal the NOC building with the help of police. NOC, led by Shrestha, has been recognised by the Olympic Council of Asia and International Olympic Committee and is running the Olympic movement in the country.