Section 17 in The M.P. Farmers' Organisation Election Rules, 1999
17. Scrutiny of Nomination Papers.
(1)On the date appointed for scrutiny of the nominations, the candidates, the proposer of each candidate and one other person duly authorised in writing by each candidate, may attend at such time and place as may be specified under Rule 16. No other person shall be entitled to be present. The Election Officer may, however, admit such other persons as he thinks fit to assist him. The Election Officer shall give such persons all reasonable facilities to examine the nomination papers of all the candidates, which have been received as aforesaid.(2)The Election Officer shall then examine the nomination papers and shall decide on all the objections which may be made to any nomination and may either on such objection or on his own motion after summary enquiry as he thinks necessary, reject any nomination on any of the following grounds, namely :-(a)that the candidate is disqualified for election as Member or President of Water Users' Association, Distributory Committee and Chairperson of Project Committee as the case may be, under Section 14 of the Act; or(b)that the name of the candidate or of his proposer or both is or are not registered in the voters' list; or(c)that the candidate or his proposer has failed to comply with any of the provisions of Rule 13 or 15; or(d)that the signature or the thumb impression of the candidate or the proposer in the nomination paper is not genuine :Provided that the Election Officer shall not reject any nomination paper on the ground of mere clerical or printing error or any defect which is not of a substantial character.(3)The Election Officer shall endorse on each nomination paper, his decision, accepting or rejecting the same and, if the nomination paper is rejected, he shall record in writing brief statement of his reasons for such rejection. The scrutiny shall as far as practicable, be completed on the date appointed in this behalf under Rule 16 and no adjournment of the proceedings shall ordinarily be permissible except to provide an opportunity to a candidate to rebut any contention raised against his candidature.(4)For the purpose of this rule, a certified copy of an entry in the voters' list in force of a Water Users' Association/Distributory Committee/Project Committee, as the case may be, shall be conclusive evidence of the fact that the person referred to in that entry is an elector for the Water Users' Association/Distributory Committee/Project Committee, unless it is proved that he is subject to any disqualification mentioned in the Act.(5)Immediately after all the nomination papers have been scrutinised and the decision regarding accepting or rejection the same have been recorded, the Election Officer shall prepare a list of validly nominated candidates, and affix it on the notice board of his office in Form 5 for Water Users' Association, in Form 22 for Distributory Committee and in Form 32 for Project Committee as the case may be.
