KERALA STATE RIFLE ASSOCIATION Minutes of the Election General Body Meeting held on Sunday the 15 th of May, 2013 at 11.30 A.M. at Rajiv Gandhi Indore Stadium, Ernakulam -------------------- Members Present 1. Mr. Manoj Abraham I.P.S., Inspector General of Police & President 2. Mr. Mohammed Rafeeq, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Ernakulam, Returning Officer. 3. Adv. Rajesh, NRAI Observer 4. Mr. Devasia Kurian, Hon. Secretary, K.S.R.A. 5. Prof. Sunny Thomas 6. Adv. John S. Ralph 7. Mr. R.G.K. Pillai 8. Mr. A. A. Shukkoor 9. Mr. G. Sreekumarakurup 10. Mr. Joe I Mangaly 11. Mr. Joseph Thmas Mukkada 12. Mr. Antony Martin 13. Mr. Suresh Kaippada 14. Mr. Joseph Augustine 15. Mr. K.A. Joy 16. Mr. Jose Joseph 17. Mr. Gangadharan 18. Mr. Jacob George 19. Mr. Joshy Pallan 20. Mr. P. Mohandas 21. Prof. James V.C. 22. Mr. Jogy Thomas 23. Mr. A. Sreekumar 24. Mr. B. Reghunath 25. Mr. M.M. Abdul Rahiman 26. Mr. P.O. Oommen 27. Mr. Dominic Mathew 28. Mr. P. Anupaman 29. Mr. Joseph Kuruvilla 30. Mr. P.K. Mohan 31. Mr. Mohan Jacob The meeting was called to order at 11.30 A.M. with President Mr. Manoj Abraham in the chair. Dronacharya Prof. Sunny Thomas welcomed the President and all the members attending the E.G.M. He also welcomed Mr. Mohammed Rafeeq, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Ernakulam the Returning Officer for the E.G.M, the N.R.A.I. election observer Adv. Rajesh, and Mr. Bipin, Kerala State Sports Council Observer who was yet to reach the venue. 1
The minutes of the previous A.G.M. was read, and Prof Jaganathan raised an objection, that the minutes was not circulated sufficiently well in advance before the meeting for studying, for which the secretary clarified that the minutes of all the previous meetings were sent to all the members immediately after the meeting and is having the postal dept confirmation for the same. The meeting resolved to pass the minutes recording the objection of Prof Jaganathan. The accounts for the financial year 2012-13 which was circulated was presented by the treasurer.prof Jaganathan raised a point to the effect that the member ship constitution of the G.B. is changed and the old G.B. has to approve the A/C s. The president informed that due to cases filed by certain affiliated dist associations, the minutes book was submitted in the court and hence meetings could not be convened and A/C s passed earlier. The meeting resolved to pass the accounts recording his objection. The president explained in detail regarding the directions sent by him stipulating the production of the authenticated letter from the President and District Collector or Vice President and Police Chief / Commissioner of police, certifying the current list of the selected/elected representatives to KSRA from the respective districts. The Rifle associations being qausi governmental and by statute the Dist collector and The Police chief are the ex officio president and the vice president, the above decision was taken to ensure the proper identification and authentic participation of the dist association representatives, and the G.B. unanimously agreed with the President. In the case of Kasargode Mr. Kammath had come with the authenticated letter from the District Collector but had failed to remit the arrears in the stipulated time. Hence his name was not figuring in the voters list. The General Body resolved to allow him to participate in the E.G.M. without voting status since is in arrears to K.S.R.A. The President after enquiring with the members, regarding any further points are pending to be raised by the members, declared that the meeting 2
agenda is finished, other than the election of the office bearers and called upon the returning officer to conduct the election proceedings. The returning officer took over, and informed the meeting, that since the Thrissur District Rifle Association representatives alone have failed to produce any documents or certificate from their Dist collector/commissioner of police, identifying them as the authenticated representatives of their association, as stipulated in the election notifications, cannot be permitted to attend and vote in the meeting as eligible voters. Hence the nominations filed, proposed and seconded by the ineligible voters will have to be treated as invalid and rejected. He also informed the meeting that this was communicated well in advance to all the members by the president in the election notice sent, also stipulated by the returning officer periodically at the time of submission of the nominations, scrutiny, publication of the candidate list, eligible voters list, that the above all proceedings will be subjected to the production of the authenticated letter from the respective Dist President and District Collector or Vice President and Police Chief / Commissioner of police, certifying the current list of the selected/elected representatives to KSRA from the respective districts at the time of the elections. This was also prominently exhibited on his notice board on the respective dates. The meeting unanimously agreed with the returning officer s decision of not allowing the T.D.R.A members to attend the election general body meeting. Mr Abdul Redman came up with a point of order stating, that this election general body meeting is not correct, that the no of representatives from certain district associations is more than 2, and that the election is in violation of the sport council s directions in this regard. He also read out a letter ought to have been sent by the council in this regard to the Secretary. This was denied by the Secretary and he produced and tabled a letter No. KSSC/A3/1357/13 dt 06.05.13 sent from the council stating, that the sports council has received the communication sent by him regarding the election on 15 th may,that the council has appointed and deputed Mr Bipin as their official observer for the election, and hence the averment of Mr Abdul Rahiman is against the facts. He added that the amended byelaws of the association was sent to the council immediately upon the amendment, once again after the election was declared, and till date the council did not point 3
out any irregularity in respect of the amended byelaws. Secretary Mr. Devasia Kurian again clarified that no letter as alleged by the member has been received by him from KSSC in respect of any irregularities in the byelaw. He also added that the bye laws has been registered with the Registrar and the copy of the bye-law was also sent to the secretary, KSSC by way of registered post and acknowledgement received. Upon secretary s request KSSC has also deputed Mr. Bipin as Observer for this election and he is scheduled to be present today for the election. The President assured the meeting that he will verify regarding any letter in this regard has been sent by the K.S.S.C and suitable reply will be forwarded to the council if seen. He also confirmed that the byelaws will be vetted legally and if any irregularity is detected in the present byelaw, will take suitable steps to rectify the same as per the sports act and directions of the K.S.S.C. The meeting agreed with the president and authorised the president to initiate suitable action in this regard. Prof. Jaganathan pointed out that the appointment of returning officer was not decided in the executive committee. Mr. Jose Joseph, Vice President, informed that the averment is wrong, that in the last executive committee meeting held on 04.03.2013 it was resolved to authorise the president to appoint a suitable and competent returning officer and the president had appointed Mr. Mohammed Rafeeq, DCP, Ernakulam as the Returning Officer in the meeting itself. The president also confirmed that the returning officer was appointed by him in the meeting as per the meeting decision. Prof Jaganathan stated that the postponement of election from 12 th to 15 may 2013 was also not decided in the Exe Committee meeting.the secretary informed that, the meeting was postponed due to the non availability of the president due to his official duties and in consultation with the available exe committee members over telephone had postponed the date to 15 th may, that to with due publication of the mandatory 15 days notice and is fully legal. The president confirmed the statement of the secretary and the meeting unanimously ratified the postponement of the date. 4
Prof. Jaganathan challenged the claim of the secretary regarding the registration of the bye-law with the registrar and the secretary produced the certified originals of the registered copy of the bye-laws with the registrar. Mr. Abdul Rahiman insisted on a ruling on the subject matter, and the president informed that a specific ruling is not warranted since the election is being conducted as per the approved, registered bye-laws of the KSRA, and Mr. Abdul Rahman and Prof. Jaganathan who is raising this objection had also participated in the bye-law amendment meeting and voted, as per the records. The president also expressed his willingness to examine the matter in detail, in tune with the Sports Act and informed that if any discrepancy is there, it will be legally examined and necessary rectifications will be undertaken if required. The members except Prof. Jaganathan and Mr. Abdul Rahiman agreed to this and the meeting resolved to conduct the elections as per the byelaws of the association. In protest Mr. Abdul Rahiman informed that he is staging a walk out and walked out to the meeting. He was followed by Prof. Jaganathan and 2 representatives from Ernakulam and 1 from Kannur. The President again informed that his desire was to ensure participation of all the districts and unfortunately in the case of Trichur, the District Collector and President and the Vice President / Police Chief have refused to acknowledge the association representatives and in contra have sent numerous letters to him and other statutory authorities alleging that, the association is totally mismanaged, secretary and his office bearers are fraud, association not being run transparently, not catering to the welfare of the shooters, and was denying member ship to the eligible persons. Further he added that The dist Collector has already preferred a police complaint against the office bearers, alleging misuse of public money, misuse of ammunition issued for competitions, misusing the office of the Dist collector and the commissioner of police, for printing of letter heads without their permission, for conducting illegal meetings and filing of court counters without their permission, for nonproduction of a/c s and minutes book, upon their specific directions. The Dist Collector has also written to him, P.S. to the Chief minister, and the Secretary to Govt, Sports &youth affairs, requesting to suspend the association and to reconstitute the same with participation of the 5
interested and eligible public. On may 3 rd the dist collector and president has published in news papers that, he himself and the vice president was opting out of this association from their ex-officio posts, and warning was issued to the public that they are not part in any activities of the Trichur District Rifle Association and they will not be responsible for any actions and misdeeds of the T.D.R.A. The Dist collector has also alleged that the bye laws of the TDRA do not have any legal validity, not binding on him, and is being used to defraud the public stating that the bye law is with the approval of the Dist collector. The meeting unanimously agreed with the president and authorised the president to initiate proceedings to disaffiliate the impugned association and to reconstitute a new district association in Trichur. The returning officer conducted roll call of all the eligible members and found that 30 members were qualified as voters and out of which 5 members had walked out and balance 25 members identity was verified as per their official certificates from their respective District Collector and President and the Vice President / Police Chief, attendance ascertained and the names of the eligible voters list was read out and published. He also informed that since TDRA has failed to produce the authenticated letter from the district collector / Commissioner of Police in respect of their representatives, they are declared as invalid voters and all the nominations submitted, proposed and seconded by the TDRA members viz Mr. Babu Manjila, Mr. Igny Mathew & Reneesh Daniel is being declared as invalid. In the case of Kasargode the official representative have come with the Dist collectors certificate but have failed to produce the no due certificate from the treasurer, and was declared as ineligible voter. After detailed verification of the eligible voters list he declared that election need only to be held for 5 posts i.e. 4 Nos Exe committee members and 1 no Representative to the Kerala sports council since all other posts are uncontested. The 6 nos nominations respectively filed by various members viz., Mr Joseph Kuruvilla for the post of the vice president, Mr Babu Manjila for the post of the vice president & treasurer, Mr Igni Mathew for the post of the Secretary and the Exe committee member, and Mr Reneesh Daniel for the post of Exe committee member stands invalid and rejected since the nominations are not proposed /seconded by the eligible members. The members unanimously agreed with 6
the returning officer s decision. The returning officer informed that elections will be held for 2 posts i.e. to the executive committee member 4 Nos. and the representative to KSSC 1 No. The printed ballot papers was prepared in respect of the above posts, and after signing and authenticating the same by the returning officer was shown to all the members, ascertained their concurrence, each member was called one by one and the ballet paper was issued for voting. The Returning officer informed the members, that voting should be a tick mark or X mark against each name, that out of 5 contestants for the 4 executive committee member post only 4 names should be tick marked, and that if 5 members name is tick marked, it will be treated as invalid. The balloting was conducted, and once 25 members had casted their respective votes, the sealed ballot box was opened in front of all the members. The polled ballot papers were counted and again ascertained that 25 ballots has only been polled. The ballot papers were counted in presence of all the members, tabulated, and the details of votes polled in favour of each candidate was enumerated and declared to the meeting as below. Executive Committee Members: 1. Mr. K. Sreekumar 24 Votes 2. Mr. Anupaman 24 Votes 3. Mr. Joseph Augestine 22 Votes 4. Mr. Jacob Kynadi 19 Votes 5. Mr. Joseph Kuruvila 8 Votes. Representative to KSSC: 1. Mr. A. A. Shukoor 24 Votes 2. Mr. M.M. Abdul Rahiman 4 Votes Accordingly the returning officer declared as elected 1) Mr. Mr. K. Sreekumar,2) Mr. Anupaman, 3)Mr. Joseph Augustine & 4)Mr. Jacob Kynadi for the post of 4 nos Executive committee members. Mr. A.A. Shukoor was declared elected as the representative to KSSC. The results of the other posts 7
in which there was no contest were also declared as elected by the returning officer as detailed below: Vice presidents : 1. Prof. Sunny Thomas 2. Mr. Jose Joseph 3. Mr. Devasia Kurian Secretary : Mr. Joe I Mangaly Joint Secretary : Mr. V.C. James Treasurer : Adv. Johns Ralph Nominees to NRAI: 1. Prof. Sunny Thomas 2. Mr. Devasia Kurian 3. Mr. James V.C. 4. Mr. P.O.Oommen Nominee to K.O.A : 1. Mr. Mohan jacob The returning officer informed the meeting that the unused ballet papers 8 Nos. is being cancelled and signed by him. The polled ballet papers 25 Nos. and the cancelled non-polled ballet papers 8 Nos. totalling 33 Nos. is sealed and will be kept in the safe custody of the office of the returning officer Mr. Mohammed Rafeeq, D.C.P. Ernakulam. The returning officer declared that the election proceedings are over. The president requested the new office bearers to take charge, and the outgoing secretary Mr Devasia Kurian handed over the charge to the new secretary Mr Joe I Mangaly, and all the new office bearers took charge of their respective posts. All the files and documents was also handed over to the new secretary. The president thanked the Returning officer, the N.R,A,I, observer and all the members for participating in the meeting. The meeting was adjourned for the lunch at 1.00 pm. For Kerala State Rifle Association Hon. Secretary 8