1.,"Sale and receipt of the nomination Papers for
election of Chairman, Vice-Chairman and
delegates of the committee of management",23.07.2018,From 10 am to 12 noon,--
2.,Scrutiny of nomination papers received,23.07.2018,12 noon to 01 pm,
3.,Filing of objections on nomination papers,23.07.2018,From 01 pm to 02 pm,
4.,Disposal of objections,23.07.2018,02 pm to 03 pm,
5.,Withdrawal of nomination,23.07.2018,03 pm to 03:30 pm,
6.,Display of valid nomination papers,23.07.2018,3:30 pm,
7.,Allotment of election symbols,23.07.2018,04 pm to 04:30 pm,
8.,Voting,23.07.2018,04:30 pm to 05:30 pm,
9.,Counting of votes,23.07.2018,Immediately after polling,
10.,Declaration of election result,23.07.2018,Immediately after counting,
on which the Registrar shall fix the new date for the election.,,,,
441. Where the State Government is satisfied that circumstances exist which render it difficult to hold the election on the date fixed by the Registrar, it",,,,
may direct the Registrar to postpone the election and thereupon the Registrar shall postpone the election and all proceedings with reference to election,,,,
shall be commenced afresh in all respect:,,,,
Provided that if nominations have been finalised and symbols have been allotted, the process of election shall continue and poll shall be held on such",,,,
date as the Registrar may fix.,,,,
449. If for any reason the election officer of any society has been disrupted by the District Magistrate, or the Election Officer, the process of election",,,,
shall commence from the stage at which it is disrupted or from a stage prior to that or de novo as the Registrar may decide:,,,,
Provided that if nominations have been finalised and symbols have been allotted, the process of election shall continue and poll shall be held on such",,,,
date as the Registrar may fix.â€,,,,
8. Since the decision to postpone the elections has been taken in the present case by the Election Officer, what is relevant for our purposes is Rule",,,,
449. The aforesaid provision of law has also to be read with the special Rules of 2018 known as the Uttarakhand State Co-operative Societies,,,,
Election Rules, 2018 (from hereinafter referred to as the Rules of 2018).",,,,
9. Under Rules 17, 18 and 19 of the 2018 Rules, an elaborate procedure has been given as to what is to be done during elections and what is the role",,,,
of an election officer while postponing or canceling the election. Rules 17, 18 and 19 of the Rules of 2018 read as under:-",,,,
“17. Cancellation of polling due to violence riots or Natural calamity:- When the proceeding of election of the Society has started, the election",,,,
proceeding shall not be disrupted except due to the reasons mentioned in rule 16:,,,,
Provided that if polling or any proceeding of election gets disrupted due to riots or open violence at the place of polling or holding election is not,,,,
possible due to any natural calamity, the Election Officer appointed for such election shall declare the postponement of election till next date to be",,,,
notified later. The information of such postponement shall be given to the District Co-operative Election Officer and the Authority immediately, on",,,,
which the Authority shall fix the new date for election:,,,,
Provided further that the election procedure shall be postponed only after narrating the whole sequence of incidents in a chronological order in the,,,,
polling diary being used by the Election Officer.,,,,
18. Election procedure after cancellation:-If for any reason the election of any Society has been disrupted by the Election Officer, the process of",,,,
election shall commence from the stage at which it is disrupted or from a stage prior to that or de novo as the Authority may decide:,,,,
Provided that if after the nomination symbols have been allotted on valid nomination papers, the process of election shall continue and poll shall be held",,,,
on such date as the Authority may fix:,,,,
Provided further that if the election of any society is postponed by the Authority under rule 441 of the cooperative rules all the procedures of Election,,,,
shall be commenced de novo.,,,,
19. Counting of ballot paper:- In every election after the close of the polling counting of Ballot paper votes shall be held by the Election Officer in the,,,,
manner prescribed in rule 44 and under the guidelines of the Authority and every candidate, his election agent and his counting agent shall have the",,,,
right to be present at such counting.â€,,,,
10. We are presently by and large concerned with Rule 17 of the Rules of 2018 which clearly says that if an election process is disrupted or postponed,,,,
for any reason, it will be the duty of the Election Officer to narrate the whole sequence of incidents in a chronological order in his polling dairy being",,,,
used by the Election Officer. It is an admitted case that the Election Officer is provided a polling dairy by the authority in which he has to record the,,,,
incidents which includes disruption, if any, and shall assign reasons therein. This has to be a detail report explaining under what circumstances",,,,
disruption, if any, has taken place.",,,,
11. Generally as a disruption in an election process i.e. disruption in election of even one Primary Agricultural Cooperative Society disrupts the entire,,,,
procedure, inasmuch as, the natural consequence of this would be that a particular society where the elections have not taken place, for any reason",,,,
whatsoever, will not be in a position to send its delegates for elections to the next higher society. In other words, it disturbs the entire chain. Therefore,",,,,
it would be in the fitness of things and it has to be read as one of the purposes of the Act that if for any reason the elections are ever postponed or,,,,
cancelled then the next day after the postponement or cancellation, as the case might be, election must be promptly announced by the authority or the",,,,
officer concerned.,,,,
12. However, for whatever reasons the elections have been postponed but since the election symbols have already been allotted, in view of proviso to",,,,
Rule 449, the process of election shall continue from the stage where there was a disruption and poll shall be held on such date as the Registrar may",,,,
fix. It shall not be a de novo exercise. This Court has already been informed by the learned counsel for the authority and it must be put on record that,,,,
the next date of elections is 20/21.08.2018. Since such a decision for conducting the election has already been taken, therefore, nothing further needs",,,,
to be done on this aspect. Let the elections be conducted on 20/21.08.2018 as per schedule.,,,,
13. Writ petition stands disposed of.,,,,
