Constitution

Bylaws of the Coordination Committee
Coordination Committee of Central Govt. Pensioners’ Associations Chandigarh
(Registered under the societies Registration Act, 1860 No. 2234/1993)

BY-LAWS/CONSTITUTION OF THE CO-ORDINATION COMMITTEE OF THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT PENSIONER'S ASSOCIATION, CHANDIGARH (Amended up to 13th March, 2011)

1. The Co-ordination Committee of the Central Government Pensioners' Associations Chandigarh have been registered under the Societies Registration Act 1957, vide Registration No. 2234 of 1993 by Registrar of firms and Societies U.T. Chandigarh. The following By-Laws/Constitution will govern its affairs:

2. REGISTERED OFFICE

The registered office of the Co-ordination Committee will be at the residence of the Chairman. However, the working office of the Committee will be at the residence of the Secretary General.

3. AIMS AND OBJECTS OF THE COMMITTEE

The Co-ordination Committee is a non-political and non-religious body for fostering fraternity amongst the Central Government Pensioners and to work for their cause as outlined below:-

(a) To co-ordinate the efforts and activities of various Central Government Pensioners' Associations for improving the lot of pensioners through all legitimate, democratic and constitutional means.

(b) To secure, protect, promote and safe-guard the interests and rights of the pensioners/family pensioners and to work for removal of disparity, if any;

(c) To take all possible/feasible measures to uphold the dignity of the pensioners, and

(d) To seek implementation of favourable Government orders/judicial orders where under any relief is provided to the pensioners.

4. MEMBERSHIP

(a) Any Association/Welfare Society of Central Government Pensioners' subscribing to the aims and objects of the Coordination Committee shall be admitted as the constituent member as an affiliated association by paying the prescribed annual subscription as fixed by the Committee from time to time.

(b) i) Representatives of affiliated associations: Each affiliated association shall nominate one representative for every 20 Members of the respective Association as Member of General Body of Coordination Committee – including the President and General Secretary of respective Association who shall be Ex-officio Member of the General Body of Coordination Committee.

ii) AFFILIATION FEE: Each affiliated association shall subscribe as Affiliation Fee to the Coordination Committee @ Rs.5 (Rupees Five Only) per year for every paid member of the association (as on 31st March and as certified by the President / General Secretary of the respective association)

(c) Managing Committee may change or alter this criteria of representative or/and subscription from time to time with the final approval of the General Body.

(d) The nominated member representatives, of affiliated associations will have a tenure of two years or till new members are nominated. by the parent association, whichever is later. Normally the nominated members should not be recalled before the completion of their tenure. In the case of office bearers of Managing Committee of the Co-ordination Committee, they shall not be recalled till the holding of next elections of the Managing Committee. The nominated members must include the names of President and General Secretary of the affiliated association.

(e) Membership of Co-ordination Committee may be terminated on following grounds:

f) Withdrawal by affiliated association.

g) if any representative member acts against the "Aims and Objects" of the Co-ordination committee or if his code of conduct is prejudicial to the interest or cause of pensioners and/or senior citizens as adjudged by 2/3rd majority of Managing Committee. A disciplinary sub-committee may be constituted to probe into such cases. The termination of membership on such grounds must be approved by General Body. The parent association will be asked to withdraw the name of such representative and take suitable action against the delinquent member and nominate appropriate replacement.

h) ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP:

i) Any retired Central Government official (residing outside Chandigarh, Panchkula & Mohali) may become an Associate Member of the Coordination Committee.

ii) The subscription for the Associate Members of the Society shall be Rs.100 per annum

5. PATRONS: The General body may nominate a prominent citizen or a distinguished pensioner as its patron. There shall be not more than two patrons at a time.

6. FUNDS OF THE COMMITTEE

(i) Source of funds of the Committee is generally through the annual subscription paid by its constituent members. If need be the committee may seek donations and grants and special contributions.

(ii) The funds of the Committee shall be kept in a nationalized bank and the withdrawals from the account shall be made by cheques signed by two of the three functionaries viz. Chairman, Secretary General and the Finance Secretary. However, an amount upto Rs. 500 can be kept in cash out-side the bank account to meet day to day expenditure. The detailed account will be maintained by the Finance Secretary.

7. GENERAL BODY

(a) The representative members nominated by affiliated associations as per Para 4 will constitute the General Body of the Co-ordination Committee, for a period of two years or till the holding of next elections to the Managing Committee whichever later.

(b) The General Body of the Committee shall be the supreme authority. A quorum of 1/3rd members on rolls shall constitute quorum for the General Body meeting. However, if a meeting is adjourned for want of quorum it may be reconvened after half an hour and the proceedings held in the adjourned meeting shall be final and binding even if there is no requisite quorum.

(c) The Meetings of the General Body shall be held at least twice a year by giving 15 days’ notice at a time, date and place fixed by the managing Committee.

8. FUNCTIONS OF GENERAL BODY MEETING

1. The decisions of General Body shall be final.

2. The General Body shall:-

(i) Elect the Managing Committee for a term of two years.

(ii) Adopt and approve statement of accounts to be presented by Managing Committee.

(iii) Lay down guidelines on which the Managing Committee should act.

(iv) Adopt its own procedure and given such directions as it deems fit in conformity and aims and objectives of the Committee.

(v) Adopt annual & audit report of the Secretary General.

9. MANAGING COMMITTEE

(a) There shall be a Managing Committee consisting of eight elected members: One Chairman, One Senior Vice Chairman, Two Vice Chairmen, One Secretary General, One Joint Secretary, One Organizing Secretary and One Finance Secretary. Up to ten Executive Members will be nominated to the Managing Committee by the Chairman in consultation with other elected members to ensure the representation of all affiliated associations in the Managing Committee. In addition, the immediate outgoing Chairman, General Secretary and the Editor of the Magazine 'Pensioners' Coordinator' will be full fledged co-opted/ex-officio Executive Members. General Secretary and President of each Affiliated Association shall be Ex-officio Member of the Managing Committee of Coordination Committee.

(b) The Chairman, in consultation with other members of Managing Committee may also incorporate up to four members as 'Special invitees' for carrying out deliberations of its meeting as advisers without voting rights.

(c) The tenure of Managing committee will be two years or till the holding of next elections.

(d) All the office bearers of the Managing Committee will be honorary. No remuneration will be given to any office bearer, except reimbursement of out of pocket expenses and for any expenditure incurred on transportation, telephone calls and other miscellaneous expenses.

(e) Seven members shall constitute quorum for a meeting of Managing Committee, which shall generally be held once in two months. Such meeting can also be called on receipt of requisition from 1/3rd members of Managing Committee or at least three affiliated associations.

(f) A no-confidence motion against any office bearer may be moved by at least 50% strength of the Managing Committee. The no-confidence motion will be considered by remaining members of Managing Committee less affected office bearer. Chairman will preside over this meeting. In case of no confidence motion against the Chairman the meeting will be presided over by Senior Vice Chairman. In the absence of both, by any member authorized by consensus of other members of Managing Committee. The no-confidence motion outcome/decision will be put up to the General Body in a meeting to be called within fifteen days and deemed to have been passed by a simple majority of members present.

(g) No member shall hold same office of the Managing Committee for more than three consecutive terms.

10. FUNCTIONS OF THE MANAGING COMMITTEE:-

(I) Act in accordance with the guidelines of General Body.

(II) Adopt its own procedure to achieve the aims and objects of the Committee.

(III) All bills and payments exceeding Rs.1000/- shall have to be approved by the Managing Committee.

11. FUNCTIONS OF THE OFFICE BEARERS

(i) CHAIRMAN

He will be head of the Co-ordination Committee 2nd office bearers. He will preside over meetings of the Managing Committee and the General body meetings. Delegation to various forums will be with his express approval. Nobody will represent the Coordination Committee anywhere except with his approval. Chairman shall be authorised to sanction / approve expenditure up to Rs.5000 on an item - to meet with the objectives of the Coordination Committee. He will also be authorized to keep an imprest amount of Rs.1000 to meet with any urgent expenses.

(ii) SENIOR VICE-CHAIRMAN

He will assist the Chairman and in the absence of Chairman, the Senior Vice-Chairman will perform the functions of the Chairman.

(iii) VICE-CHAIRMAN

In the absence of Chairman/Senior Vice-Chairman he will perform the functions of the Chairman.

(iv) SECRETARY GENERAL

He will be the Chief Executive responsible to execute guidelines of the General Body and that of the Managing Committee. He shall convene meetings of the General Body and of the Managing Committee with reasonable prior notice, write proceedings and also convene urgent meetings on requisition or other-wise for deciding urgent matters. He will sign all communications made on behalf of the Coordination Committee. Secretary General shall be authorised to spend an amount up to Rs.1000 on an item to meet with the objectives of the Coordination Committee. He will also be authorized to keep an imprest amount of Rs.1000 to meet with any urgent expenses.

(v) JOINT SECRETARY

He will assist the Secretary General and in the absence of Secretary General the Joint Secretary will discharge his functions.

(vi) ORGANIZING SECRETARY

He will assist the Secretary General in respect of organizational matters.

(vii) FINANCE SECRETARY

He will maintain the accounts. He will be responsible for all receipts and disbursements and maintain all records connected with accounts of the committee. He will prepare annual accounts, get it audited and present it to the General Body for adoption after its approval by the Managing Committee. Finance Secretary shall be authorized to keep a cash Imprest up to Rs.1000:

a) To meet with day-to-day expenditure incurred by him or to recoup expenditure incurred by any of the other Office Bearers of the Managing Committee to meet with the objectives of the Coordination Committee - against the Vouchers duly verified by the Office bearer concerned;

b) To recoup the Imprest held by the Chairman & the Secretary General against expenditure vouchers duly verified by them.

c) To extend such advance as may be required to meet with the expenses on authorized items as per resolutions of the Managing Committee.

d) He will take the post-facto sanction / approval of the Chairman on the vouchers submitted by the Office Bearers of the Managing Committee of the Coordination Committee which are duly verified by the Office Bearers concerned.

12. ELECTION COMMISSIONER

There shall be an Election Commissioner who will be nominated by the Managing Committee for holding elections to the Managing Committee.

13. ELECTIONS

The office bearer of the Managing Committee shall be elected by secret ballot and will hold office for two years or till the holding of next elections, whichever is earlier. Normally the tenure of Managing Committee shall start from the month of August each year. Elections should preferably be completed by last week of July each year.

PROCEDURE FOR HOLDING ELECTION:

(a) The Managing Committee will nominate the Election Commissioner.

(b) The Election Commissioner will thereafter fix the dates for inviting nominations in writing from amongst the nominated members of the general house, scrutiny, withdrawals and polling in July, if necessary. The polling shall take place by secret ballot.

(c) The result will be declared by the Election Commissioner. The existing Managing Committee will render all assistance to the Election Commissioner.

(d) The Election Commissioner shall notify the election programme to all the constituent associations at least two weeks prior to the date of polling.

(e) Only such nominated members of the general house will be entitled to vote whose Constituent Association has paid the annual subscription up to-date.

(f) A member can stand for only one office and his candidature shall be propose and seconded by one member each. One member can propose or second one candidate only.

14. FILLING UP VACANT OFFICE

(a) In the event of falling of offices of Chairman or Secretary General vacant, the Senior Vice-Chairman or the Joint Secretary respectively shall take over as such. And the Managing Committee shall fill up the post so falling vacant by co-option by majority.

(b) In the event of any other office falling vacant i.e. Senior Vice-Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Joint Secretary, Organizing Secretary, Finance Secretary, the Managing Committee shall fill up the said office by co-option on such terms and conditions as it may impose by majority.

15. AUDITOR

There shall be an Auditor who will be nominated by the Managing Committee to audit the annual accounts by the Coordination Committee.

16. AMENDMENT OF PROVISIONS OF CONSTITUTION

(a) No amendment shall be carried out which affects the basic character of the Constitution.

(b) A proposal for amendment of any of the provisions of the constitution shall be put to the house only after it has been moved by at least 10% of the enrolled members of the General Body.

(c) On receipt of such a requisition, the Secretary General of the Committee shall arrange for holding a General Body meeting within a period of not more than 15 days.

(d) In the General Body meeting, amendment shall be deemed to have been carried out, if minimum 50% members are present and the move is approved by 2/3rd of the members present.

(e) Thereafter, the Constitution shall be deemed to have been amended and the amendment so made shall be duly notified.

17. DISSOLUTION

In the event of dissolution of the Co-ordination Committee brought about with the approval of not less than two-third majority of members of the General Body, the disposal of the assets after meeting all the liabilities, will be determined with reference to the provision of the Societies Registration Act, 1860 as amended by the Punjab Amendment Act, 1957.

18. DISPUTES

Disputes between the Members shall be decided by the General House and jurisdiction of the Civil Courts shall be barred.

19. REPEAL & SAVINGS

The previous Constitution approved by General House in Feb. 1992 stands repealed forthwith. However, actions taken under old constitution shall not be questioned in any proceedings.