Residents have alleged that the outgoing residents’ body has not been conducting elections in accordance with the society’s bye-laws that were amended in 2009.
Residents of Sector 33 Noida mulling over the issue
The Deputy Registrar, Meerut, for society and firm has recently dissolved the RWA Managing Committee for Noida Sector 33. This means that residents have to go in for fresh polls. Incidentally, the RWA elections had previously been scheduled for next month. However, the Deputy Registrar’s order issued on September 12, cancels this schedule.
According to the order, the tenure of the outgoing residents’ body had ended in June 2017. However, the residents’ body has been delaying the elections for the management committee by over two months now. Consequently, the Deputy Registrar has declared the outgoing residents’ body as null and void and written to the district administration that a returning officer has to be immediately appointed for conducting the fresh elections.
Residents of Sector 33 have alleged that the outgoing residents’ body was anyway not conducting elections in accordance with the society’s bye-laws that were amended in 2009. The amended bye-laws say that a office bearer cannot contest elections for more than two consecutive terms. However, the outgoing management committee has many sitting members who have already held offices for three consecutive tenures which is a stark violation of the amended bye-laws. The duration of tenure is two years.
While addressing the media in a press conference held in Noida Sector 52, Sundar Singh Rana, a resident of the sector, said that they shall approach the district administration for appointing a returning officer as the RWA election should be conducted under the proper supervision of a returning officer. Rana said, “As per bye-laws, once the management body is dissolved, the power to conduct fresh elections rest with the deputy registrar or a returning officer appointed on his order.”
V Kapoor, vice president of the dissolved management committee, said that though the amendment in bye-laws had been unanimously passed and adopted in the Annual General Body meeting held in 2009, the deputy registrar of society and firms had not approved it. This was a serious lapse as the deputy registrar is the sole authority to approve the bye-laws. Kapoor however begs to differ and questions, “Why have they not raised any objection in the past? Why has the Deputy Registrar’s office suddenly woken up to enforce the amended bye-laws?”
The earlier version of the bye- laws, which were approved in 1996, do not restrict a member from contesting elections for any number of times. A K Sharma, who has been holding the post of president of the management committee for a few terms, told City Spidey that they have been holding the posts as per the regulations specified in the bye-laws.
