AICF ordered to deposit Rs 58.50 lakh for holding elections

By Venkatachari Jagannathan

Chennai, March 5 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Madras High Court-appointed All India Chess Federation (AICF) election Returning Officer has ordered the chess body to deposit Rs 58.50 lakh towards remuneration-himself, two Assistant Returning Officers, secretarial staff and other charges so that he can commence the election process as per the National Sports Development Code.

In his order, former Supreme Court judge Justice F.M. Ibrahim Kalifulla said the Madras High Court on February 18 had requested him to convene as Special General Body meeting of AICF for conducting election of office bearers by sending fresh notices for all the members along with date, time, place and also fix the date for filing of nominations and others.

Listing out the various election procedures listed out in the National Sports Development Code for holding the elections at Hyderabad -- a venue decided by the Madras High Court -- Kalifulla said the entire exercise would involve work for more than 10 days for him as the Returning Officer, two Assistant Returning Officers and Secretarial Assistant.

"Therefore the AICF is directed to pay a sum of Rs 50,00,000/- (Rupees Fifty Lakhs only) towards the fees of the Returning Officer, Rs 3,00,000 (Rupees Three Lakhs only) towards the fees for the two Assistant Returning Officers, Rs 50,000 (Rupees Fifty Thousand only) towards the charges for Secretarial Assistant apart from a sum of Rs 5,00,000 (Rupees Five Lakhs only) to cover the expenses (viz.,) stationery, travel to and fro from Chennai and Hyderabad on the date of Election for the Returning Officer, Assistant Returning Officers, Secretarial Assistant and the other persons whose services would be engaged on the date when the Election is to be held, namely on the date of Annual General Meeting."

The high court had earlier appointed Kalifulla as the Returning Officer and ordered that the AICF should pay him a fee of Rs 500,000 apart from other expenses.

"I have to write to the state associations on the matter to ascertain their views and act accordingly," Bharat Singh Chauhan, Secretary, AICF told IANS.

Continuing further, he said: "It is chess players money. I will be the last person to spend so much money on elections."

Last month Kalifulla had declared five persons as elected unopposed for various posts for the period 2020-2023.

The five are Ajay H. Patel as President, Bharat Singh Chauhan as the Secretary, Naresh Sharma as Treasurer, M. Arun Singh as Joint Secretary and Vipnesh Bharadwaj as Vice President.

Kalifulla had rejected the nomination forms of 23 contestants -- including that of then President P.R. Venketrama Raja and several others -- as they did not file their nominations in person as specified in the para 6.4 of the National Sports Development Code.

Subsequently, the five persons who were declared elected assumed office.

But on February 18, the high court set aside the election of five and asked the Returning Officer to convene a Special General Body Meeting to conduct fresh elections.

The court dismissed the appeal made by Chauhan's camp against the high court's order necessitating the start of the election process for AICF.

Meanwhile, it is unclear who are all the office bearers at AICF. The Madras High Court has ordered fresh elections without categorically saying that all the five who had assumed charge have to vacate their positions.

On the other hand, the global chess body FIDE has taken down the list of new office bearers of AICF as there is no legal clarity on their position.

Source: IANS