Unreasonable and restrictive conditions

From:
Mrs. Deepa Tidke
8, Nandanvan, 4th Road, TPS-III,
Santacruz-East, Mumbai – 400 055

To,
The Chairman,
MIG Cricket Club,
Bandra – East, Mumbai

Date: 29th May, 2012

Sub. A) Unreasonable and restrictive conditions re. Eligibility for
contesting Trustee elections

B) Reasonableness of the Code of Conduct

Dear Sir,

On the subjects referred above I wish to state as under:

A) Unreasonable and restrictive conditions re. Eligibility for contesting Trustee
elections:

1) The condition that ‘only a member who has completed at least one full term
as a Member of the Managing Committee can contest the Trustee election’ is
unreasonable and restrictive. It implies that all other members are less qualified to
discharge the duties as Trustee of the Club! There are many members who may be
much better qualified and experienced that those eligible. Please note that I do not
mean to demean the eligible members.
2) As on today only 32 or so members are eligible as against more than 4,000
members of the Club! Such restrictions amount to denial of civil rights to contest the
election by unjust, unreasonable and restriction eligibility criteria.
3) I draw your attention to the DECLARATION ON CRITERIA FOR FREE AND
FAIR ELECTIONS unanimously adopted by the Inter-Parliamentary Council at its
154th Session (Paris, 26 March 1994) of the Union’s 129 Member Parliaments. It
specifically mentions that everyone should have equal right to contest elections.
4)Various Supreme Court and High Court cases those specifically dealt
with ‘unreasonable and restrictive eligibility criteria’ for candidature. Such
unreasonable and restrictive condition though provided in the Club’s constitution and
a Change Report being already approved by the Charity Commissioner, can still be
easily challenged in a Revision Application.
5) You will appreciate that the Managing Committee and the Board of Trustees are
treated at par under the Bombay Public Trust Act and a condition that one need to
be member of the management of the Club to be eligible to contest to become its
member is very unlikely to stand test of the law.
6) Such Revision Application may lead to the eligibility conditions being declared ‘ab-
initio void and bad in law’ that may result in later annulling the election itself or
stalling the election process by a Stay.

7) I had raised objections in writing to such amendments to the constitution before the
EGM that approved it but my objections were not placed before it or debated.
8) I request you to place on the Club’s notice board details of the eligible members i.e.
name, educational qualifications and experience of the eligible members.
9) The age criteria is also unreasonable considering that our Indian constitution
prescribes a minimum age of 35 years for the post of the Prime Minister of India. I
hope we do not consider the duties of a Club’s trustee more onerous that that of the
Prime Minister. The younger generation actually is much more active and intelligent
than many of us crossing that age limit!

I request you to kindly consider the above and initiate the necessary process to amend
the Club’s constitution to remove such conditions and not to conduct the Trustee election till
then as no major hurdles in management of the Club are expected in its absence.

B) Reasonableness of the Code of Conduct:
1) Time And again I had requested to remove the code viz. ‘Not to promise any
amendments to the Club’s Constitution and not to discuss any financial matters of
the Club’.
2) Mr. Karnik, the previous Election Offer had rightfully accepted my contention and the
same had to be dropped then. Mr. Khatavkar, election office for the last MC election
refused to apply his mind on the same and anyway replied to my objection only on
the last day of the election!
3) I fail to understand what are we trying to say by such Code of Conduct? Are we
trying to hide certain financial issues? Or we ourselves consider that our Club’s
Constitution is not right and that some candidates may expose it?

Kindly drop this Code of Conduct provision in the general interest of the club and for
the sake fairness of the entire election process. Instead of gagging up the candidates, it
actually fuels doubts on integrity and intentions of the management of the Club
unnecessarily!

I request you to kindly put this letter on the notice board of the Club for the benefit of
the Members and oblige.

Thanking you,

Yours sincerely,

Deepa Tidke
Life Member LT-1811

Copy to: The General Secretary, MIG Cricket Club
The Trustees of MIG Cricket Club