Elections and settlement of disputes.

(1) Elections shall be first held for the constitution of the Collegium from within the electoral colleges determined therefor, wherever applicable, and thereafter for the Governing Body by the Collegium. (2) The process of elections of the Collegium of a Society shall be commenced, in so far as possible, three months prior to the due date so that the newly elected Governing Body is in place on or before the due date. (3) On the day the elections of a Society are notified, the Governing Body or the adhoc body or the Administrator, as the case may be, shall publish the list of members entitled to vote. Such list of members shall be made available to a member on demand, on payment of such fee, as may be prescribed by the Society in its Bye-laws. (4) Any person or group of persons, if aggrieved with the list of members published under sub-section (3) above on account of non-inclusion or wrongful inclusion of any member, may file a petition with the District Registrar stating the specific grounds of challenge within a period of fifteen days of publication of the list of members. The District Registrar may, where the number of members is very large and for reasons to be recorded, accept the petition within an extended period of seven days. (5) The District Registrar may, if he has reasons to suspect the bona-fides of any such petition, require the petitioners to deposit such amount, as prescribed, as a surety against any abuse of sub-section (4) above. The amount deposited by the petitioners shall be refunded forthwith if the petition succeeds but shall be liable to be forfeited, if such petition is found to have been made without any merits. (6) Where a petition is filed before the District Registrar under sub-section (4) above, the District Registrar shall, after fulfillment of the condition specified under sub-section (5), immediately hold the election process in abeyance and proceed to conduct an inquiry by himself or by an officer appointed by him, in this behalf, for determining the list of eligible members. (7) The District Registrar may, for the purpose of his inquiry, refer to the annual return of members filed by the Governing Body in his office and consult any or all the relevant records of the Society. The District Registrar shall enjoy all the powers vested in him under Chapter XII of the Act for holding the inquiry. Any such inquiry shall be conducted in the open and completed in a summary manner. (8) Upon completion of the inquiry under sub-section (6) above, the District Registrar shall determine the list of members eligible to vote, make it public and set the process of election in motion. Where the initial list of members published under sub-section (3) above is found to be defective during the inquiry, the election