RULES OF THE ASSOCIATION OF RETIRED JUDGES OF SUPREME COURT AND HIGH COURTS OF INDIA : 2022

In exercise of the powers conferred by/under rule 12(b) of the Association Rules 2001 of the Association of retired Judges of Supreme Court and High Courts of India, the General Body in its extraordinary meeting held on 06.08.2022 at Judicial Training Research Institute, Vibhutikhand, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow has made the first amendment to the Memorandum and the Rules of the Association 2001. Consequently, rearranging the provisions, the Association Rules 2022 are notified herein below;

Association Rules 2022

The registered office of the Association is located C/O Registrar General Delhi High Court, Lawyers Chambers Block 03, Ground floor, New Delhi 110003

1. Short Title and commencement:

These rules of the Association of retired Judges of Supreme Court and High Courts of India, shall be called shortly as “Association Rules 2022”.
These Rules shall come into force with effect from 15th August 2022.

2. DEFINITIONS:
a) “Association” means Association of Retired Judges of Supreme Court and High Courts of India.
b) “President” means President of the Association.
c) “Vice President” means Vice President of the Association.
d) “Secretary General” means Secretary General of the Association.
e) “Secretary” means Secretary of the Association.
f) “Treasurer” means Treasurer of the Association.
g) “Member” means Life member of the Association.
h) “Year” means calendar year commencing from 1st day of April.
i) “General Body” means general body of all the members of the

Association
j)    “Patron” means the outgoing President of the Association.
k) “State Chapter” means the integral constituent of the Association consisting of the members resident in the State of the High Court or its Bench.
l) “Chairperson” means the Head of the State Chapter.
m) “Chapter Executive” means the member of the Association as well as the executive of the State Chapter concerned.
n) “Chapter Secretary” means the member of the Association and secretary of the State Chapter concerned.
o) “Special Invitee” means a person/member whose special knowledge or expertise or experience the Executive Committee may require.
p)    “Associate Chapter” means the affiliated Association or any institution of the retired Judges of the Supreme Court or the High Court who are members of that Association or institution and affiliated with the state chapter concerned.
q)    “Invitee” means the chairperson or his nominee who may participate in the meetings of the Executive Committee.

Explanation: All the office bearers including the patron, the special invitees and the invitees will be honorary and bear all their expenses on their travelling lodging and boarding incurred in connection with the meetings, conferences, camps, seminars, workshop, or any other activity of the Association and the state chapters or Associate chapter.

3. Membership:

All the retired Judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts of India shall be eligible to become life members of the Association. Post retirement reemployment will not be a bar against membership.
Any retired Judge of the Supreme Court or High Court of India who is willing to become member of the Association, shall make an application in the prescribed form along with payment of the prescribed fee for life membership.
The President will admit the applicant as a member of the Association. The Secretary General shall inform the applicant as well as the executive committee of the decision on the application for membership. He shall also issue a receipt of fee paid by the member.
If the applicant is admitted as member, his membership shall continue so long as it does not cease due to his death or by his resignation duly accepted by the President or by his removal from membership by the decision of the Executive Committee, but no part of fee or any contribution for the special purpose shall be refundable to the member concerned on cessation of his membership.
The membership fee for life shall be Rs. Ten Thousand only, However, the general body may, by resolution, revise the membership fee or may demand any contribution for the special purpose, which shall be payable by the members provided that the former ordinary member only, may pay Rs. 7,500/- only to become life member until revision of fee is decided.

4. Executive Committee:

The Superintendence, day to day control of the affairs of the Association, its income and property, movable or immovable shall vest in the Executive Committee.
The following will form the Executive Committee of the Association:-

President
Four Vice Presidents
Secretary General
Four Secretaries
Treasurer
Ten Executive Members.

The term of the Executive Committee of the Association shall be two years.
Notwithstanding anything in clause (c) an Executive Committee shall continue till another Executive Committee is formed.
Except the first Executive Committee formed at the time of the registration of the Association, the office bearers of the Executive Committee shall be elected by the general body in its annual general meeting except one Vice President, Secy. General, One Secretary and the Treasurer who shall be nominated by the President elect.
The chairperson or his/her nominee will be regular invitee to the meeting of the Executive Committee. The President may also invite any other specialist person or experienced member as a special invitee to the Executive Committee.
Any casual or unfilled vacancy shall be filled by the Executive Committee for the remainder period. Any vacancy in any office, remaining unfilled in the general elections held in the meeting of the general body shall be filled by the new executive committee, considering regional representation.
The President, any Vice-President, Secretary General, any Secretary, Treasurer or any executive member of the Executive Committee may, in writing, resign and upon such resignation he shall cease to be President, Vice-President, Secretary General, Secretary, Treasurer or Executive Member, as the case may be.
The Election to the offices of the Executive Committee will be held in accordance with these Rules and the Bye-laws, if any, framed by the Executive Committee.

5. President:

The president will be head of the Executive Committee of the Association. He shall convene and preside over the meetings of the General Body and the Executive Committee. He will be competent to engage casual/ daily/part time worker for his camp office and of the Secretary General, meetings conferences, camps etc and miscellaneous work. He will be competent to manage the finances and to sanction all expenditure.

6. Vice President:

The Vice-Presidents shall assist the President and discharge the duties assigned to them, from time to time, by the President. In the absence of the President, the Vice-president, senior in age, shall preside over the meetings of the General Body and the Executive Committee. He shall while acting as the President exercise all such other administrative or financial powers as that of the President.

7. Secretary General:

The Secretary General will be the chief Executive Officer of the Association. He will be the head of office administration. He shall, in his functions as Secretary General, receive guidance from the President and shall discharge the duties assigned to him, from time to time, by the President. He will receive and issue letters on behalf of the Association. He will be custodian of all funds, records, movable and immovable properties of the Association and maintain all accounts and registers and keep them up-to-date. He will have an imprest account of Rs. ten thousand in cash to meet urgent and daily requirements and contingencies etc. He will recuperate the said amount as soon as he spends more than 50% thereof by submitting the bills/vouchers etc for the amount spent, through cheque drawn by him. He shall inform by email or whatsapp the treasurer about every receipt of money and also the amount and the item of expenditure with cheque no. and date, within 14 days. He shall also assist the treasurer in the preparation of the Annual Financial statement and the annual budget for consideration of the Executive Committee, in consultation with the President. He will be custodian of the bank Pass Book, the Cheque Book, the fixed deposit receipts or other financial instruments and seal of the Association. He shall also discharge such duties and responsibilities as may be assigned to him by the Executive Committee, President or the Vice-President.

8. Secretary:
Secretaries will assist the Secretary General and will do all work allotted to them by the Executive Committee, President, Vice-President or Secretary General.

9. Treasurer:

The Treasurer shall prepare and submit annual financial statement of receipts and expenditure and the annual budget of the Association in consultation with the President and the Secretary General. He will be responsible to ensure that the expenditure is done in accordance with the allocations in the budget passed by the General Body. He will keep the account of the receipts and expenditure in the registers during the financial year on the basis of the information received from the Secretary General. He will also collect from the Bank six monthly statements of the Bank Account for the purpose of comparison with the information received from the Secretary General. He will discharge all such other functions as may be entrusted to him by the Executive Committee, President, Vice-President and Secretary General.

10. Auditor:

The General Body of the Association shall engage or may authorize the executive committee to engage an Auditor who shall audit the accounts of the Association for the period specified in the order and provide the balance sheet and the audit report duly signed and sealed to the Secretary General within the statutory time limit. He shall also prepare and submit income tax return in time. Provided that the first Auditor shall be appointed by the first Executive Committee formed at the time of registration of the Association.

11. Executive Member will do all such work as may be allotted by the President, Vice-President, Secretary General and the Secretaries.

12. Meetings-General Body:

a) A meeting of the General Body shall be ordinarily held in a year physically or/and virtually once in a year, to consider the following:-

b) To consider the audit report of the audited accounts of the previous year/years.

c) To consider the annual report of the Secretary General about the activities of the Association during the year and future plans.

d) To consider annual financial statement of the year and the budget estimates for the next year, as proposed by the Executive Committee.

e) To elect office bearers of the Executive Committee except One Vice President, Secretary General, treasurer and One Secretary to be nominated by the President elect.

f) The General Body may consider any other matter of common importance or urgency, as may be raised by any member of the state chapter or the President of the Association.

g) Every member present physically or virtually at a meeting of the general body will have a right to cast only one vote. No proxy will be allowed. In the event of the equal votes for or against any proposal, the President at the meeting shall have a casting vote which will be decisive.

h) The Executive Committee, with prior approval of the President, shall fix the date and venue of Annual meeting or extraordinary meeting of the General Body. A notice of 15 days for the annual meeting along with agenda will be sent by email or whatsapp to all the members, by the Secretary General.

(2) Meeting of the Executive Committee shall be ordinarily held quarterly or at any earlier time, if the situation so demands. For ordinary meeting seven days notice to the members of the Executive Committee shall be necessary. For emergent meeting one day’s notice will suffice.

(3) Every office bearer present at a meeting of the Executive Committee will have right to cast only one vote: No proxy will be allowed for this purpose. But special invitee and invitee will not have any right to vote. A resolution having majority votes in its favour shall be declared to have been adopted. In case the votes are equal in favour of and against any resolution, the President or any other presiding officer of the meeting shall have a casting vote which will be decisive.

a) The Executive Committee can convene extraordinary General Meeting physically or virtually or both to consider urgent matters for which at least 7 days notice to all the members shall be necessary.

b) The members can also convene an extra-ordinary general meeting and for that 14 days notice to the President and Secretary shall be necessary. At least 1/3 of the total membership of the Association must sign the requisition stating clearly the President/Secretary shall convene the meeting giving at least seven days clear notice to all the members stating clearly the time, place and purpose of the meeting. Only those matters which are specified in the notice shall be discussed in such meeting.

5. A meeting of the General Body or of the Executive Committee shall be presided by the President. In the absence of the President the Vice President, senior in age, shall preside the meeting but if all the Vice-Presidents are also absent, the office bearers present at the meeting shall choose another office bearer amongst themselves to preside at that meeting and such office bearer shall preside that meeting.

13. POWER AND FUNCTIONS:

a) The General Body shall be the supreme authority with all powers to take policy decisions, review the working of the Association and guide and control the working of the Executive Committee.

b) The General Body only shall be competent to make amendments in the Memorandum of Association and the Rules by a resolution passed by a majority of 2/3 members present in the General Body meeting or the Extra-ordinary meeting called for that purpose.

c) The General Body may frame Regulations for the conduct of the affairs of the Association and to add, amend, alter or rescind them from time to time.

14. AFFILIATION:

The General Body may affiliate with the Association any association or institution of retired Judges of a High Court or Supreme Court on such terms and conditions as it may deem fit.

2. Upon such affiliation, one representative of such affiliated association/institution will be invitee to the Executive Committee and The General Assembly and such association or institution shall be deemed to be Associate Chapter attached with the State Chapter of the Supreme Court and High Court concerned, as the case may be.

3. (i) The majority of members of the local unregistered association send a letter duly signed by each member to the Secretary General requesting for affiliation to the ‘Association of Retired Judges of Supreme Court and High Courts of India’, on such terms and conditions as are specified by the Association;

(ii) Every member of the local Association should submit prescribed membership application form adding a request to get affiliation with the Association;

(iii) Such willing member must deposit a token fee of Rs.2000/- for affiliation, in the Bank Account of the Association mentioned in the membership application;

(iv) After the completion of the above noted two formalities, the Secretary General with the approval of the President will issue a letter to each and every affiliated member informing that henceforth the local Association will be designated as Associate Chapter of the State Chapter if already existing and if not, the State Chapter and the Association Rules 2022, the Association Bye-laws 2022, the Resolutions passed by the General Assembly and the Executive Committee of the Association shall be binding on and followed by each and every affiliated member either of the Associate Chapter or the State Chapter as may be the situation;

(v) Consequent upon affiliation of the local unregistered Association, the chairperson, secretary and the executive member of the associate chapter or the state chapter shall be first nominated for a term of two years by the President on the basis of the recommendation of the secretary in charge of State chapters who will take into account the consensus of the members;

(vi) The affiliated members may use logo of the Association on their visiting cards and letter head pad and may get photo ID card on providing all necessary details of Aadhaar, Mobile Number, Photograph, Blood Group and Emergency Contact Number.

15. Powers of the Executive Committee

a) The Executive Committee will be responsible to implement the policy decisions taken by the General Body. It shall examine annual financial statement and budget estimates submitted by the Treasurer to place the same in the meeting of General Body for approval. It will also be responsible for raising funds for the Association by all legal means, like faith, charity show, advertisement, reading material or Brochure published by the Association, raffles and grants from Government.

The Executive Committee may frame bye-laws for the conduct of the elections and for carrying out the aims and objects of the Association, raising the income of the Association and all other matters incidental or supplemental thereto.
The Executive Committee may remove a member from the membership of the Association on the grounds of his proved misbehavior after giving him a notice in writing.

16. QUORUM FOR MEETINGS:

The quorum for the meeting of General Body shall be 1/3rd of the total membership. For the meeting of the Executive Committee the quorum shall be five. If the quorum is not found in the first meeting, the meeting shall be adjourned for half an hour and resumed. No quorum shall be required for the adjourned meeting.

17. MAINTENANCE OF REGISTERS:

The Secretary General shall maintain all the registers and books including the membership register, account book, cashbook etc and proceedings book of the meetings which shall always be available in the office for perusal by the members if they so desire with due notice to the President/Secretary General.

18. Audit:

The accounts for the year shall be audited by the Auditor. The audit should be completed within six months and the report shall be submitted to the Secretary General through the Treasurer.

19. CASES AND SUITS:

Cases and suits by or against the Association shall be filed or defended by the President or the Secretary General of the Association or by any other person/ committee duly authorized by the President in writing, if the subject matter of the litigation involves common cause of the members.
No case or suit by or against the Association shall be compromised, compounded or sent to arbitration without the sanction of the Executive Committee.
No proper discharge of any debt due to the Association can be given by any office bearer or member of the Association without the prior approval of the Executive Committee.
In the absence of any legal impediment, all cases or suits by or against the Association shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the Courts at Delhi.

20. Fund, Account and its operation:

Fund of the Association will consist of membership fees, contributes, special donations by the members; welfare grants/assistances from the government and other legal collections just as publication of journals, advertisements, articles, conferences etc.
A Bank account shall be opened in the name of Association of Retired Judges of Supreme Court and High Courts of India, by the Secretary General and one such Secretary who is duly authorized by the Executive Committee in that behalf but, the existing account with any scheduled bank will continue unless and until the President or the Executive Committee takes a decision otherwise, either to change the bank or its branch.
The pass book, cheque book, PAN Card and/ ATM debit card of the bank account shall remain in the custody of the Secretary General who shall be competent to deposit all the cheques and cash amount if any, in the bank account and be competent to withdraw money from the account after sanction of the expenditure by the President. The cheque will be signed by the Secretary General for any amount not exceeding Rs. Ten thousand Rupees only at a time. The Cheque for any amount exceeding Rs. Ten thousand will be signed by at least any two office bearers out of three office bearers authorized by the executive committee. The President shall intimate to the concerned bank, the names of the authorized persons with their specimen signatures alongwith a duly certified copy of the resolution of the executive committee passed to that effect.

21. State Chapters:

There shall be formed High Court wise State Chapters comprising of such members of the Association who have their residential address in the territorial jurisdiction of the High Court in India and shall be named as per such High Court, prefixing the name of the state.
The State Chapter committee shall consist of one chairperson, one Chapter executive and one Chapter Secretary to manage the affairs of the state chapter relating to the realization of the aims and objects of the Association. The office bearers of the State chapter will be either elected or nominated from amongst them as the majority of the members decides in their wisdom. The term of the office bearers will be two years or such term as the majority of the chapter decides. The Bye-laws made by the Executive Committee may be made applicable to the elections if any of the office bearers of the State Chapter are to be elected.
In case the State Chapter does not nominate or elect its office bearers, the President will be competent to nominate the office bearers of the State Chapter either in its inception or subsequently. In case where no State Chapter has been formed, the President on the recommendation of the Secretary in Charge of the State Chapters will be competent to form the State Chapter consisting of the available members there and nominate its office bearers for two years initially or subsequently, if the need arises.
The Executive Committee or the President may give any direction to the State Chapters for undertaking such activities as may be beneficial to the members and the public at large, in furtherance of the aims and objects of the Association and the State Chapter shall follow such directions.

22. The Chairperson or his nominees will be regular invitee to the meetings of the executive committee.

23. The State chapter committees will hold periodical meetings for get-together and to check out the plans and take steps for completion;

To hold regular contact with retiring Judges of the High Court so as to enroll them life members of the Associations as soon as they retire;-
To approach their High Court/State Government for such benefits to retired Judges which can be given to them by those authorities;
To undertake such activities which are for the common welfare of the judicial fraternity;-
To hold periodical seminars/conferences/camps on the topics in conformity with the aims and objects of the Association;
To give active cooperation to State legal services Authority in its activities and the Lok Adalats.
To look after and render all possible aid and assistance to the spouses of the deceased members in the matters of family pension, health and medical facility, residential problem and outdoor work etc. through the Registrar protocol of the High Court or through other means;
To apprise the Executive Committee with such events, measures or happenings in their respective states which may be of common concern for the retired Judges and suggest such measures needed to achieve the aims and objects of the Association;

24. The chairperson or any other office bearer or member will forward and counter sign the application of new membership after recording the names, addresses, whatsapp and email and the mode of payment of fee etc, under intimation thereof to the Secretary monitoring the State Chapters on his email and to the Secretary General of the Association.

25. Finances of the State Chapters.

The expenses required to be incurred in the activities and functions of the State Chapters will be borne by the members of the State Chapter with their own contribution or any other arrangement as they themselves decide.

26. The executive committee or the President may give any advice to the Chairperson as may be necessary or sought by the State Chapter.

27. Mode of Service of Notice or other information/document etc.

Any notice or information/ document will be served on the Patron, office bearers, members, invitees and special invitee if any, by either email or whatsapp or website only but in extremely rare situation, by post - registered or speed post. The requirement of service of the notices of the meetings under the rules will be deemed to be sufficient if conveyed by email or whatsapp or website.

28. DISSOLUTION OF THE ASSOCIATION:

The dissolution proceeding shall be made as per the provisions of the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (Act No. XXI of 1860).
If on the dissolution of the Association, there shall remain, after the satisfaction of debts and liabilities, any property of the Association the same shall not be paid to any member of the Association or disbursed among them but shall be donated to some other association of the like nature as may be specified in the dissolution resolution. In the absence of such specification the Registrar of Societies shall decide as to which association such remainder property shall be donated.

29. Interpretation:

If the meaning or application or its extent or scope of any provision of any rule is questioned or disputed, the President shall be competent to interpret the rule or provision which shall be final subject to modification by the Executive Committee or the General Assembly on review.

Authenticated by the President.

Justice K.L. Sharma