Order on plea against Kalmadi's London Olympics visit reserved

"The order on the interim application is reserved for tomorrow," said a bench headed by Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri after hearing two-hour-long argument on lawyer Rahul Mehra's plea against Kalmadi's proposed visit to London for the sporting extravaganza.

"I'm not going to attend meetings in London on behalf of either the Government of India or any Indian sports body. I'm not carrying the badge of Indian representative in the Olympics," Kalmadi's counsel Mukul Rohatgi told the bench.

"I'm the president of Asian Athletes Association (AAA) and have been invited by International Association of Athletes Federation (IAAF), a foreign body which is not before this court," argued the senior counsel adding that his client Kalmadi's fundamental right to travel cannot be curtailed when he is assuring the court that he is going there on behalf of AAA.

"What heavens will fall if some friend of mine gives me a ticket or I myself purchase a ticket and go there to watch a sporting event...? This application is motivated and directed against me," Rohatgi said.

In reply to a query by the bench as to how Kalmadi became the AAA president, Rohatgi said the sports administrator was elected president of Athletic Federation of India in 2001 and became the AAA president the same year and as a consequence he has been invited by IAAF.

"It seems even the foreign sporting bodies have the Indian tradition of electing members in perpetuity," Justice Sikri remarked.

At the end of the hearing, Rohatgi assured the court that Kalmadi will not watch any sporting event even as an invitee of IAAF, but he cannot be stopped from travelling and watching a game in his individual capacity. (More)