ORDER OF THE ELECTION TRIBUNAL ORDER - 2-,
Dated: 24th May , 2006.

 

1.	The Tribunal was appointed by the General Body of the Indian Association of Physiotherapists held at Hyderabad in February 2004, to decide all disputes related to the IAP election for the year 2006-2008. The elections were held for the year 2006-2008 and the counting of the votes was to be done on 26-03-2006. In the meantime, the Tribunal received several complaints from the candidates/ members, regarding the elections.
2.	The Tribunal passed an order on 06-03-2006, directing the Election Committee to withhold counting of votes for all the posts. Thereafter, the Tribunal called for responses from the Election Officer and the Election Committee, and also sought explanations from the concerned parties.
3.	On 13-4-2006, the Tribunal passed an order, invalidating the ballots which had been received by the Election Officer. The Tribunal directed that bio-datas of candidates and ballot papers should be prepared afresh and circulated to all the voters for re-casting of votes. A new time-frame was also fixed for the completion of the election process.
4.	The Tribunal, even after passing of the order dated 13-4-2006, sought a response from the Election Officer on 14-4-2006. However, till 13-5-2006 there was no response from the Election Officer or the Election Committee. During this period, the order of the Tribunal was implemented by the Election Committee and the election process was started afresh by calling for the bio-datas of the candidates.
5.	Thereafter, the General Secretary of the Association received an e-mail message from the Election Officer on 13-5-2006, stating that the Election Committee requests that re-election be held only for the five posts of Members of the Central Executive Committee and the General Secretary was requested to initiate legal action against the order passed by the Tribunal. Upon this being conveyed by the General Secretary to the Election Tribunal, the Tribunal considered it appropriate to call a meeting with the Election Officer and the other members of the Election Committee to try and resolve the issue. The meeting was held on 20-5-2006.
6.	At the said meeting, the Election Officer repeated his request that the fresh voting should be ordered only for the post of Members of the Central Executive Committee and not for the four posts of office bearers. The Election Officer stated that the complaints regarding the design of the ballot paper and editing of the bio-datas could not be entertained as they had been made only after printing of the ballot paper and bio-datas. In the opinion of the Tribunal, the complaints could only have been made after the ballot papers and the bio-datas were circulated to the members, and therefore, delay could not be a ground to reject these complaints. The Election Officer submitted that the complaints should be regarded as suggestions for the next election and should not invalidate the ongoing election process. The Election Tribunal in its order dated 13-4-2006, has already considered that the dispute regarding the editing of the bio-datas is a serious one and is based on the requirement in the Association’s Rules and Regulations for circulating the bio-datas of the candidates. Further, there is nothing in the complaints received by the Tribunal to suggest that the candidates intended to offer suggestions for the next election and not to affect the present election process. The Tribunal regarded the dispute regarding editing of bio-datas as sufficiently serious to warrant reprinting of bio-datas and calling for fresh ballots to be cast by the members. In view of the fact that fresh ballot papers would have to be printed for this purpose, the Tribunal also requested the Election Committee to incorporate certain improvements in the design of the ballot papers.
7.	At the said meeting, the Election Officer also presented some new material on the complaint of Dr. A.K. Saxena. The Election Officer referred to the Association’s Newsletter dated December, 2005, which reads as follows: “KIND ATTENTION Dear Members, I would like to inform you that the Election Officer’s Notice published in the IAP News Letter July, 2005 issued (Page 24) need to be read as below. (The omitted word is underlined & bold). The typographical error in the printing is regretted. Dr. B.S. DESIKAMANI GENSECRETARY-IAP” “FLASHBACK FROM ELECTION OFFICER - Kindly note the electoral roll provided by the Gen. Secretary I.A.P. shall be the sole criteria of accepting and rejecting the nomination form in the forthcoming elections of I.A.P. Contestants claiming and providing alternative proof of being active member either for themselves or for their proposer and seconder will NOT be accepted and binding upon the Election Officer. Therefore prospective contender for the forthcoming election kindly ensure now with the Gen. Secretary and the Treasurer about their names in the electoral roll with their proposer and seconder”. The Election Officer stated that in view of this clause, the complaint of Dr. A.K. Saxena fails as it was his duty to confirm from the records that his proposer was on the rolls of the I.A.P.
8.	However, in our considered opinion, Dr. A.K. Saxena’s propose, Dr. Ramesh Chand Sharma holds a life-membership certificate issued by the I.A.P. The above notice of the Election Officer was published in the IAP News Letter, and not circulated to the members with the election notice when the Election Officer was calling for nominations. In fact, it is evident from the above publication in December 2005 that it was a corrigendum to an earlier notice published in July 2005. The Tribunal found that the earlier notice of July 2005 was ambiguous and could be interpreted to suggest that alternative proof of being active members for the candidates, their proposers and seconders would be binding upon the Election Officer. Therefore, the Tribunal felt that it was not proper to rely upon these notices to disqualify the candidate on the ground that the proposer did not figure on the electoral roll of IAP, although he held a life membership certificate issued by the Association. The contents of the Newsletter cannot be binding upon the candidates. At this stage it is inappropriate for the Tribunal to go into the validity of a certificate as the matter has already been referred to the Executive Committee for further action. Therefore, there is no ground to reject the nomination of Dr. A.K. Saxena. In any event, the Tribunal has passed the order dated 13-4-2006 on the basis of several complaints from the contestants and members arising out of a defective election process.
9.	Thus, the Election Officer was not able to present any fresh grounds for modifying the order of the Tribunal dated 13-4-2006. However, the Election Officer made repeated requests for holding re-elections for only five posts of the Executive Committee members and to count the previous votes for the remaining posts of President, Vice-President, General Secretary and Treasurer of the I.A.P. The Election Officer stated that this would involve considerable effort and expense, particularly in postage to all the 12000 members of the Association. However, in the Tribunal’s opinion, this cannot be a ground to validate a vitiated election and, in any event, the effort and expense would not be very different if the fresh bio-datas and ballots are called for the elections to the Central Executive Committee alone. Even the Election Committee has suggested that fresh voting for the posts of members of the Central Executive Committee would have to be held. Therefore, the Tribunal is of the view that there is no reason to modify its order dated 13-4-2006. Further, the election process has already begun and fresh bio-datas have already been called for circulation to all the voters. The last date for receipt of bio-datas was fixed as 5-5-2006.
10.	The election process has started but in the circumstances, some modification of the schedule is required to enable the Election Officer to resume and complete the election process. The date for posting ballot papers and bio-datas to all members is fixed as 1-6-2006. The date for receipt of ballot papers be fixed as 30-6-2006, and for counting of votes be fixed as 2-7-2006. To this effect, the election schedule is altered. The order dated 13-4-2006 stands, in its form and substance, as on that date.
11.	Copies of this order are being sent to the Election Officer, the Assistant Election Officers and all the current members of the Central Executive Committee of the I. A.P. including the President. Vice-President, General Secretary and Treasurer.
	( DR. H.H.JAVLE)                       (PROF. D.H. DASTOOR)                       (PROF.B.V. BELLARE) Dated: 24th May , 2006.