10. Administrative machinery for the conduct of elections, powers and functions.
(1)The Principal Secretary to the Government shall be the Election Authority for the purpose of conducting of election under the Act. The superintendence, direction, control in the conduct of election of members of the Board under clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 14 in ordinary and casual vacancies shall be his responsibility. The Joint Secretary to the Government shall be the Deputy Election Authority for the purpose of conducting election under the Act. The functions of the Election Authority under these rules may also be performed by the Deputy Election Authority, subject to the control of the Election Authority.(2)The Election Authority shall designate or nominate a Returning Officer who shall be a Gazetted Officer of the State Government.(3)The Election Authority may appoint one or more persons as Assistant Returning Officers to assist the Returning Officer:Provided that the Assistant Returning officer shall be an officer of the State Government.(4)Every Assistant Returning Officer shall be competent to perform all or any of the functions of the Returning Officer subject to the control of the Returning Officer.(5)No Assistant Returning Officer shall perform any function of the Returning Officer relating to the scrutiny of nominations unless the Returning Officer is unavoidably prevented from performing the said functions.(6)Subject to other provisions of these rules, the Election Authority shall be responsible for the conduct of elections of the members of the Board and shall have power -(a)to fix date, place and time of election;(b)to specify the form of notice, nomination, letter of intimation, declaration paper, ballot paper, ballot paper cover and the envelope for the election, the form of any other record to be prepared or maintained in relation to an election and the instructions to be contained in the notification;(c)to decide, in case of doubt, the validity or invalidity of each ballot paper of each vote recorded thereon;(d)to declare the result of each election; and\(e)to fix -(i)the date of notification;(ii)the last date for receipt of nomination;(iii)the date of scrutiny of nomination and publication of list of candidates validly nominated;(iv)the last date and hour for withdrawal of candidature;(v)the date of publication of the final list;(vi)the date and hour for poll; and(vii)the date and hour of scrutiny and counting of votes.
