Schedule of Dates for Various Stages of Elections to Constitute the Tamil Nadu Wakf Board (284 Ex II 2 v4)

What the notification does

Notification No. II(2)/BCMBCMW/420(F)/2020, issued by the Election Authority of the Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare Department and published on 15 July 2020, called four electoral colleges to elect members to the Tamil Nadu Wakf Board. It fixed the election timetable and prescribed how candidates could be nominated, withdraw or be declared elected.

The four electoral colleges and seats were:

• Muslim Members of Parliament from Tamil Nadu, two seats.
• Muslim Members of the Tamil Nadu State Legislature, two seats.
• Muslim former members of the Bar Council of the State, two seats.
• Mutawallis of Waqfs with an annual income of rupees one lakh and above, two seats.

Election timetable

The Tamil Nadu Wakf Board election schedule provided:

• Nominations opened on 16 July 2020.
• The last date for nominations was 23 July 2020.
• Scrutiny was fixed for 24 July 2020 at 11.00 A.M.
• The last date for withdrawal was 29 July 2020 before 3.00 P.M.
• The final list of contesting candidates was to be published on 30 July 2020.
• Polling, if necessary, was fixed for 19 August 2020 from 10.00 A.M. to 4.00 P.M. at the Office of the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board, No. 1, Jaffer Syrang Street, Vallal Seethakkathi Nagar, Chennai 600 001.

Nomination requirements

A candidate had to be included in the final electoral roll and submit Form I between 11.00 A.M. and 3.00 P.M. on a day other than a public holiday, no later than 23 July 2020, to one of the specified election officers in Chennai.

Key conditions included:

• Candidates from the parliamentary, legislative or Bar Council electoral colleges generally needed a proposer and seconder from their own college. This was not required where that college had six members or fewer.
• A Mutawalli candidate needed nomination by at least five members of that electoral college.
• A person belonging to more than one electoral college had to choose one and could contest, propose or second only within it.
• A person who proposed or seconded another candidate could not contest.
• A person disqualified under the Act could not contest.

If the number of remaining valid candidates equalled the vacancies, the Election Authority would declare them elected without a poll.

Who is affected

Notification No. II(2)/BCMBCMW/420(F)/2020 directly concerned eligible members of the four listed electoral colleges. It did not announce a land transaction, property restriction or change in land rights.