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Narinder Dhruv Batra on Monday formally resigned from his positions as the president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and the International Hockey Federation (FIH), as well as also resigned as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), citing "personal reasons". Batra thanked the Executive Boards (ECs) of the IOA and FIH and IOC's President Thomas Bach for their “support and guidance”.
Batra wrote three separate resignation letters for IOA’s executive board members, FIH’s EB, and Thomas Bach. "Due to personal reasons, I submit my resignation from the post of president for which I was elected in 2017. Thank you for your support and guidance," Batra wrote for IOA’s EB members. "Due to personal reasons, I submit my resignation from the post of president FIH,” he wrote to FIH EB.
"Due to personal reasons, I submit my resignation from the post of IOC member. Thank you for your support and guidance,” Batra wrote in his letter to Bach. Notably, Narinder Batra was inducted as an IOC member in 2019 and later became a member of its Olympic Channel Commission.
It’s also worth mentioning that Batra’s resignation came two weeks after the Delhi High Court had refused to stay an order by which he was restrained from discharging any function as IOA president. Also, on May 25 the Delhi High Court termed Batra’s appointment as a 'life member' of Hockey India (HI) unconstitutional and illegitimate under the sports code. He was then removed from the post of IOA Chief.
"Respondent-3 (read Batra) knew fully well that the post of Life President and Life Member in an NSF is illegal. He had been specifically intimated to by the Government of India. Yet when Hockey India was registered as a Society under the Societies Registration Act 1860, on 28.05.2009 and was granted prompt recognition by the Government of India within a couple of days thereof, R-3 went ahead and had himself appointed as Life Member of Hockey India,” the court had said in its order.
“This smacks of brazen impertinence to the clear mandate of law. It was a less than honest but futile endeavour to institutionalise oneself in a body whose legitimacy itself is contingent upon conformity with the sport code and the law."