ELECTION OF OFFICE-BEARERS

Bye-Laws 43: Election of Office Bearers*

A.           ELECTION COMMISSION

Election of all office-bearers and various Standing Committees shall be conducted by an election Commission. The Election Commission shall consist of Chief Election Commissioner and 2 other members. They are to be Life Members of IMA. The Chief Election Commissioner as well as the other 2 members shall be so elected by the Central Council for a period of 2 years. In the event of any disagreement/dispute the decision of the Election Commission shall be by majority. In the absence of any of the 2 members of Election Commission, the decision of the Chief Election Commissioner shall be final and binding upon the other two.

No Office-bearers of IMA shall be nominated/appointed as election commissioner/scrutinize polling Officer.

All communications/notifications/notices etc. shall be issued from the office of IMA Election Commission only. No member (except Chief Election Commissioner) shall issue any communication individually in his name.

Apart from the Chief Election Commissioner and 2 members of the Election Commission, one member of the IMA shall be nominated by the Election Commission. The said nominated member should be based at Delhi to look after the day-to-day management of the election process. He will work as per directives issued by the commission from time to time.

The election Commission shall bean independent body and will work without any interference of any office-bearers of IMA in order to ensure free and fair elections. The Headquarters Office will provide almirah and a senior member of the office staff to regularly monitor the. office of the election commission located at IMA Headquarter. The Headquarters will provide other office assistance needed from time to time. The members of the Election Commission will be provided official accommodation and T.A. as per IMA Rules whenever they are on official duty.

B. ELECTORAL COLLEGE

The Electoral College for all posts of IMA (HQs.) and all its wings shall be the members ofthe Central Council (Regular members, Ex-Officio Members, Office Bearers and members of the Central Working Committee), whose names has been received at 1MA(HQs.) from various branches on or before 31st March in the year the elections are to be held (vide Rule 20-A)

*          The amendments approved at the 197th meeting of the Central Working Committee of IMA held at Bodh Gaya on 14-15 April, 2007 and confirmed at its 198th Central Working Committee meeting held at Bangalore on 13-14 October, 2007 and duly ratified by the Central Council at its 68th annual meeting held at Nagpur on 27-29 December, 2007.

C. TERM

The term of office bearer like National President-Elect, National Vice Presidents, Dean of IMA CGP, Chairman, IMA A MS, Director, IMA A KN Sinha Instt. and Editor, Journal of IMA shall be one year. Two sets of such office bearers shall be elected every alternate year for the specific year.

The term of all other office bearers like Hony.Secretary General, Hony. Finance Secretary, Hony.Joint Secretaries, Hony. Joint Finance Secretary, Hony.Asstt.Secretaries of IMA HQs.and Hony. Secretaries and Hony.Joint Secretaries of various wings shall be of two years and the election shall be held every alternate year.

D. SCHEDULE OF ELECTION

a. Notification

Election Commission shall follow the election schedule as under:-

(In the year - Elections are held)

Invites nominations from amongst the Central Council Members/

CWC members on or before (Notification)                                           1st July

Last date for receiving the nomination                                                  31st July - 5 PM

Scrutiny of Valid nominations and informing the candidates by Regd post 14th August

Submission of consent alongwith necessary remittance
for election OR Last date of withdrawal (Note-1)                                 31 stAugust-5 PM

Disptach of ballot papers latest by (Note - 2)                                        15th September

Last date of receipt of duly filled in Ballot Papers                                31st October, 5 pm

In case the 31st October is a Gazzetted/Postal Holiday then 5.PM
of the next working day shall be the valid time to receive the ballots

Counting date to be decided by Election Commission and
candidates to be informed atleast 2 weeks in advance.

Note 1(a)         All payments will be received in the Election Commission office through bank demand draft/pay order only. No cash/cheque to be accepted.**

**        As per the decision of the Election Commission duly approved by the Central Working Committee of IMA at its 207th meeting held at Mumbai Maharashtra on April 4, 2012 duly ratified by the Central Council at its 73rd meeting held at Kanyakumari, T.N. on December 27-28, 2012.

Note 2:  The envelope containing one big envelope, three smaller envelopes and three sets of Ballot papers alongwith the instruction sheet duly issued by the Election Commission shall be posted to all the members of the Electoral College - The number printed on the envelop shall be entered in the master list of Electoral College - which shall be used for UPC or other modes (Registered Post/Speed Post) y the Post Office of dispatch.

Note 3:  In the event of non receipt of Ballot papers by the member Electoral College the written request for duplicate ballot shall be entertained by the Election Commission on or after the 5th October and up to 25th October only Once the request for the duplicate ballots is received and the dciplicate ballot is sent; the original ballot shall be automatically invalidated.

 

E.  ELIBIBILITY CRITERIA FOR VARIOUS POSTS

For National President and National Vice Presidents

  1. Must be a Life Member of IMA for atleast 10 years
  2. Should have held an office at either State or Branch or 1MA Headquarters level.
  3. Should have no outstanding dues in 1MA

For Hony. Secretary General/ Hony. Finance Secretary/Dean, IMACGP/ Chairman, IMA-AMS and Hony. Editor, JIMA

  1. Must be a Life Member of 1MA for 10 years
  2. Should have held an office at either State or Branch or IMA Headquarters level.
  3. Should have no outstanding dues in IMA

For All Other Posts

  1. Must be a life member of IMA, with atleast 10 years of membership of IMA
  2. Must have held the office at either Branch or State level or at IMA Headquarters
  3. Should have no outstanding dues in IMA

F. ELECTION PROCEDURE

  1. Election Commission shall get the ballot papers printed indicating the name of (a) post (b) the year for which the election are held (c) the ballot paper shall be signed by atleast two members (of the Election Commission or their nominee.
  2. The ballot papers should not be numbered.
  3. Three plain envelopes shall be printed without number for containing ballot papers in it. (with adequate information printed on it). One for two sets of ballot papers for the post of National President Elect, National Vice-Presidents and one for Dean-IMACGP, Chairman­IMAAMS, Hony. Editor-JIMA and Director-IMAAKN Sinha Institute. Year of election to be printed on it and the third one for all Other Office Bearers.
  4. One bigger envelope shall be printed (duly numbered) with self address of Election Commission and details of sender including signature on the same.
  5. Two set of ballot papers for National President elect and Vice-Presidents for each year and one set for all office-bearers shall be dispatched to the members of Electoral College by UPC/ Registered Post/Speed Post as per the scheduled date by the Election Commission. The detailed instructions for casting vote year wise putting them in respective small & bigger envelop and filling up the outer cover with signature etc. needs to be mailed to each Central Council / Central Working Committee member. It should be made clear that after casting the votes the outer envelope should be sent by registered post/speed post/courier.
  6. The Ballot papers shall be received by the Election Commission or any of their nominee and the same shall be entered in a separate register date wise maintained for this purpose only and put all the envelopes in a bigger envelope and seal the same and kept in the almirah provided for this purpose.
  7. On the last date of receipt of bal lot papers, the Election Commission shall place and seal all the ballot papers alongwith a summary thereof and authenticated statement of receipt of ballots in a steel box duly sealed to be kept in his safe custody alongwith the list of Electoral College which has been used for posting of ballot paper.
  8. While sealing this box the candidate or his observer shall be permitted to be present there.
  9. The Election Commission shall decide the date of counting which shall be communicated to all the candidates two weeks in advance.
  10. The scrutinizers shall be appointed by the Election Commission for the purpose of counting. The counting shall be held under the overall supervision of the Election Commission.
  11. The counting shall be carried out at IMA house, New Delhi and the procedure for the same shall be announced by the Chief Election Commissioner there and then along with his report.
  12. The candidate will be allowed to observe the counting or he may depute an IMA member to be his observer in case he is not attending the counting. (information of the same has to be provided to the Election Commission well in time.)
  13. During the counting any objection from any candidate or his observer will be considered by the Election Commission and will be disposed off there and then.
  14. At the end of the counting the Chief Election Commissioner will compile a summary of invalid votes and shall announce the result on the same day and issue the necessary letter to all the successful candidates.
  15. Neither any candidate nor any observer shall be permitted to handle any ballot paper

G CRITERIA FOR INVALIDATION

(a) Outer Envelope

      (i) Received after the last date.

     (ii)Received in any envelop other than the prescribed envelop supplied by Election Commission.

      (iii)Received by ordinary post or by hand.

     (iv)Name, address and signature of Central Council members/CWC member not there.

(b) Inner Envelope

     (i)If Inner Envelop is other then the supplied one.

     (ii)Any mark of identification.

(c) Invalidation of Ballot Paper

     (i)Any signature/mark of identification on ballot paper.

     (ii)If number of votes cast is more than the votes asked for.

     (iii)Any cutting or over writing.

H. COUNTING OF VOTES

      (i)All valid inner envelop shall be opened and the set of ballot papers be separated and put the respective ballot paper in separate basket.

      (ii)Bundled of 50 ballots paper to be prepared.

      (iii)Counting for each post to be conducted by a separate group of scrutinizer

      (iv)Invalid ballot papers duly signed by the scrutinizer with reason to be kept separately and the Election Commission to be informed about the same and handed over separately.

      (v)Total of vote received by each candidate to be compiled and handed over to the Election Commission duly signed by the scrutinizers

      (vi)Result to be compiled by the Election Commission.

SAMPLE – INNER ENVELOPE


VOTING PAPERS OF THE ELECTION (YEAR)_________________
      *              Please put your ballot papers in this envelop, seal it, and then enclose it in the outer envelop provided herewith.
      *              DO NOT SIGN, PUT ANY IDENTIFICATION MARK OR PUT YOUR STAMP ON THIS ENVELOP

SAMPLE – OUTER ENVELOPE


BY REGD POST/SPEED POST/COURIER
Serial No.________________
FROM                                                                                                        To
Name                           ______________________                             The Chairman,
Address        ______________________                             Election Commission, IMA
                      ______________________                             IMA House, IP Marg
                      ______________________                             New Delhi – 110 002

Central Council Member/CWC member:
Branch ___________ State _________
Signature __________________

SAMPLE BALLOT PAPER

Signatures of Election Commission or nominee
INDIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION                             _________________________________

Name of the Post        __________________________   Year: _______________

Number of posts        __________________________

Please put a cross (x) against _________ candidates (s) only

S.No.

Name and address of the Candidate

Put Cross here (X)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DISPUTES

Arbitration:

44.    If at any time any member/Local Branch/State Branch desires to refer any dispute of the Association to an arbitration, the Arbitrator shall be the National President of I MA and if he be involved himself, the immediate Past National President. The Arbitrator shall give an opportunity to both the parties to file their representation and if any party desires to be heard in person, the Arbitrator shall arrange the same and at the said hearing the other party shall be allowed to be present if it so desires. The Arbitrator shall allow either party to put question to the other party to elicit the information provided the Arbitrator allows and provided that the question is in connection with the dispute before the arbitration.

The person once appointed as Arbitrator shall continue to be the Arbitrator till the dispute is settled even if his tenure of office expires.

The Arbitrator shall give his award in writing and same shall be binding on all parties concerned. The expenditure incurred by Arbitrator shall be paid by the Headquarters of IMA. The expenditure incurred by the parties shall be borne by each party concerned.

If case a member/members or any other party is ;not satisfied with the award of the Arbitrator and prefers to go to the Court, jurisdiction shall be Delhi in case the matter concerns Headquarters office.

AUDITORS AND LEGAL ADVISERS

Appointment of Auditors and Legal Advisers:

45(A)   Auditors shall be appointed at the Annual Meeting of the Central Council every ;year for auditing the accounts of the Association and its Journal and other publications, who shall be registered Accountants and whose duties shall be as follows:
             (a)    Shall audit the accounts at the end of the; year or oftener if so desired by the Central Council and shall certify to their correctness.
             (b)    Shall give suggestions for the proper keeping of accounts as required.
   (B)   Internal Auditors ;shall be appointed at the Annual Meeting of the Central Council every year for the office of Headquarters and its Journal separately at Delhi and Calcutta who shall be Registered Accountants and whose duties shall be as follows:
            (a)   Scrutinise the accounts and given his/their comments and send his/their observations every month to the Chairman, Finance Standing Committee.
            (b)    prepare Receipts & Payments Accounts every month and every quarters.
            (c)    prepare quarterly accounts, income & Expenditure Accounts and Balance Sheets.
            (d)    prepare Half Yearly Account, Income & Expenditure Accounts and Balance Sheet.
            (e)    prepare Annual Accounts, Income & Expenditure Accounts and Balance Sheet, Internal Auditors shall be appointed for one year at a time and may be re-appointed for  another one year only and shall not be allowed to continue more than two years when another Registered Chartered Accountant shall be appointed.

46.       The Honorary Legal Advisors shall be decided  at the Annual Meeting of the Central Council every year, for the Headquarters and Journal Office.