By K C Garg
Our Society is having 208 flat and it had recently gone under election as per SCEA rules, results of the election declared and list displayed on the society board. However the notification of this election is pending with Dy registrar.
My question is what is the subsequent process for selection/election of office bearers? Our society has 15 seats for committee members. After the election 12 seats {10 from General category and two unopposed from reserved category} election results declared other seat got rejected at the nomination seats. My questions are
1. Will these 2 nos reserved for women whose nomination papers were rejected will remain vacant for next 5 years .
2. Who will elect the office bearer , we the winning candidates or the Election officer and by when (in our election were held on 6th April 2015 )
3.How many post of office bearer , is it Chairman , Security , treasurer or is it Chairman . Vice chairman , Secretary ,. deputy sectary , Also is it mandatory to fill post of Expert director and functional directors , what will be their role , will they be attending all MC meetings , and weather they will be having right to vote during the MC meeting.
I C Naik
1.The most unfortunate state of this 100+ aged institution is members’ illiteracy and lack of concern to housing societies in the cooperative department of the State Government. Post 97CAA (The Constitution ( 97th Amendment ) Act 2011) the Members need to start getting educated about basics of Cooperative Movement and management of housing societies.
2.On constituting a new Committee in place of retiring one, we need to go through at least two things;
a.Your society’s registered Bye-Laws and
b.the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Election to Committee Rules, 2014.
The Bye-Laws are in society office. Election rules are here on this URL.
https://consumerresourcesin.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/election _rules_final.pdf
3.Number of seats depends upon what is specified in the registered Bye-Laws [Per New Section 73AAA(1) ] which includes mandatory two reserved seats for woman provided there are at least 2 woman voters (1st named) on the list.
4.If a housing society has adopted 2014 Model Bye-Laws then the strength is 12+2+3 (General Women + Cast based reservations) for 208 member society.
5.The Process after the declaration of Results of Election:
i.Within two days as per Sub Rule 4 of Rule 75 the Returning Officer shall submit the result to the Ward Co-operative Election Officer (the WCEO).
ii.The WCEO is required to publish a notification of elected candidate within three days of such receipt
iii.The WCEO is required to give direction to Returning Officer to choose office bearer within the period of ten days.
iv.Rule 77 provides for 15 days as against ten days as afore said.
“77. Election of office bearers.—As soon as the members of the committee are elected, the election of office bearers of any such society shall be held within the period of fifteen days from the declaration of the result as provided in its bye-laws. The meeting of the committee for this purpose shall be presided over by officer authorized by the SCEA.”
6.The registered Bye-Laws of every society are not the same. It depends on the Model the concerned society has registered and whether the latest Model has been adopted.
7.As you say the full Bye-Law strength Committee (as new Section 73AAA(1) so provides) has not been elected, it can be imagined that the shortfall is responsible for delay in constituting a New Committee.
8.Assuming the election was conducted for correct strength as per your registered Bye-Laws and there is a shortfall not exceeding 1/3 strength i.e. more than 2/3 strength is elected there is one Bye-law 119 (Model 2001 & 2009) and Bye-Law No 118 (Model 2014) which provides how to constitute a Committee. incidentally a similar provision existed in the M C S Act 1960 in Sub-Section 3 of Section 73 prior to its deletion by the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Act 2013 effective 14 2 2014. So validity of this bye-law provision is of doubtful nature. In any case Bye-Law No 118 is reproduced below.
QUOTE: In a General Election of Members of the Committee of a Society, on the election of two-thirds or more number of Members, the Returning Officer or any other Officer or Authority conducting such election shall within seven days after the declaration of results of the election of such Members, the committee has, for whatever reason, has not been so far constituted, forward their names together with their permanent addresses to the Registrar, who shall, within fifteen days from the date of receipt thereof by him, publish or cause to be published such names and addresses by affixing a notice on the Notice Board or at any prominent place in his office; and upon Constitution of the Committee such publication, the Committee of the Society shall be deemed to be duly constituted. In determining two-thirds of the number of Members, a fraction shall be ignored. UNQUOTE
9.No wonder, there prevails some confusion in the Dy. Registrar’s office as to how to go forward.
10.As for uncontested reserved seats, the WCEO is required to organize elections once again inviting nominations from general category also. Reservation of seats is also a source of confusion left un-clarified but it’s a matter of judicious interpretation that the reserved seats are part of the total strength of the Constitution and the quorum is fixed considering a full house so there cannot be a shortfall in the strength of the Committee at any time. Imagine a housing society with no women on its voter list. Reservation means a seat earmarked for such voters who belong to a specific constituency generally a weaker section.
11.Office bearers are specified in Bye-Laws. Have a re-look at Rule 77. It says elect office bearers “as provided in its bye-laws”.
12.Two Additional seats for “Expert directors” and one Functional director (Two if Directors 1re 17 or more) are optional for a society to appoint by co-option to Committee after it is constituted. Such directors have disqualifications that they can neither become office bearers nor can they vote in their elections by the Committee, They are members of the board for all other decisions making. Functional directors are employees of the Society like Managing Director or Manager,
This is a good question on facts but one needs to have a copy of registered Bye-Laws to be absolutely clear about several matters. The significance of the registered Bye-Laws has also remarkably gone up post 97CAA.