4.In the first place, it is not correct to say that failure to lodge
an account of election expenses within a period of thirty days in
accordance with Rule 65 straightway calls for disqualification of the
concerned member. Under Rule 66, the District Co-operative Election
Officer has not only to see that the person has failed to lodge an account
of his election expenses within the time and in the manner required by
the last preceding rule (Rule 65), but that such person has no good
reason or justification for such failure. In other words, in any case of
failure to lodge an account, the District Co-operative Election Officer has
a discretion to order or not to order disqualification of the concerned
person. In the present case, the Deputy Registrar has considered a
circular issued by the State Co-operative Election Authority on 12
October 2015. By this circular, the election authority has inter alia
observed that whereas Rule 65 required every candidate to submit an
account in the manner provided under Rule 67, Rule 67 itself does not
have any provision for a period within which such account has to be
submitted. The election authority has inter alia observed that the
requirement of the concerned rule, namely, Rule 65, for lodging of an
account of election expenses within thirty days, was not in consonance
with Rule 67 and, in the premises, a proposal was sent to the
Government to make the necessary amendment. Incidentally, the
Government has, in fact, modified the rule and deleted the requirement
of lodging of the election account within thirty days. Based on this
circular, and the circular of 20 January 2018, by which sub-rule 1(a)
was added after Rule 67 requiring lodging of an election report within
sixty days to the Election Officer and considering that Respondent Nos. 3
