Madras HC appoints election officer to hold TNFPC elections

The Madras High Court today appointed a retired judge as an election officer to conduct polls to elect the office-bearers of Tamil Nadu Film Producers Council for 2017-19.
Passing the orders on a batch of original applications arising out of two civil suits filed by AR Murugadoss, K Rajan, AG Alagappan and R Kishore Kumar, Justice K Kalyanasundaram announced that Justice S Rajeswaran, a retired High Court judge, will hold the TNFPC office bearers' election.
The first two petitioners sought a direction to the Council to hold the office-bearers' elections for 2017-19, in accordance with the Council bye-laws, after preparing a valid electorate by the election officer to be appointed by the court, while the other two prayed for the appointment of a retired High Court judge to hold the polls.

They submitted that the Council had issued the election notification, without issuing a notice to the general body and even without appointing an election officer.
It has also increased the fees for the candidates, arbitrarily, they contended.
While February 5 has been declared as the election date, no election officer was appointed as no one was willing to take up the job due to lack of unity and consensus among the members, they informed the court.

The council submitted that it has no objection for appointing a retired judge of the court as the election officer.
Recording the submissions, the judge said there was no need to deal with the contention of increasing the fees for candidates, at this stage.

The appointment of a retired judge to hold the elections would meet the ends of justice, the judge added.
The council shall pay him a remuneration of Rs three lakh in addition to other incidental expenses, the judge said, adding the officer should conduct the election as per the bye-laws by issuing 21 days notice to all the members eligible to contest in the election as well as cast their votes.