I have following questions related to elections (having read your article on Associate member)
1.Can Associate member propose / second someone as candidate for MC elections?
2.How many candidates can one member propose or second.
3.What happens to SC/ST /OBC seats if no nomination is recd. for such seats in an election?
On a different subject… current bye-laws say that a “person who has gained membership by virtue of nomination remains a trustee till all legal heirs are bought on record”
What if minor is a nominee, why would a owner of a property would be wanting a minor to be trustee? it is clear that while filling the nomination the member/owner wants nominee to acquire complete rights
How (process)will ‘all’ legal heirs be bought on record? how will the society be sure that all have been bought to record (confirmatory test)?
I shall be very grateful if you can provide some light on these.
I C Naik
1.Proposer’s name must be in Voter’s list. That means Associate cannot propose.
2.There is no limit, but one would imagine this number should equal or less than the number of seats to be filled up. If more number are proposed the proposers’ nominees compete with in themselves.
3.Sub-Section 3 and 4 of Section 73B apply to cast based reservations in cooperative society elections:
(3) Any individual member of the society, or any elected member of the committee of a member-society, or any member of the committee of a member-society, whether elected, co-opted or appointed under this section, belonging to the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes, or Other Backward Classes or De-notified Tribes (VimuktaJatis) or NomaticTribes or Special Backward Classes,shall be eligible to contest the election to a reserved seat and every person who is entitled to vote at the election to the committee shall be entitled to Vote at the election to any such reserved seat.
(4)Where no person is elected to any of the three reserved seats, then such seat or seats shall be filled in by nomination from amongst the persons entitled to contest the election under subsection (3)
4.If nominated S C/S T/OBC member refuses to join the managing committee the general category members who contested and lost stand a chance as per the number of votes polled by them. This is on the premises that reserved seats are part of the Committee’s strength fixed under bye laws and quorum is determined based on total strength. For instance as per bye Law 114 strength of the managing committee of housing society having less than 100 members is 11 and quorum for a valid meeting is 6. If all 5 reserved seats remain vacant, the Committee strength would be equal to quorum which cannot be the intention.
5.Bye law providing that “a person who has gained membership by virtue of nomination remains a trustee till all legal heirs are bought on record” is partly operative and partly illegal as it violates provisions of Section 30 of the MCS Act 1960. Nominee is a trustee but prohibiting such nominee from enjoying full membership rights till “all legal heirs are bought on record” is not contemplated under law as can be surmised from Sub-section 4 of Section 30. “All transfers and payments duly made by a society in accordance with the provisions of this section shall be valid and effectual against any demand made upon the society by any other person.” Best Course is to delete this condition from the Bye-Laws.
