The election of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), Pune branch, was called off on Wednesday after two of its members filed a petition in the Pune District Civil Court requesting to stay the election scheduled for Thursday.

The branch comes under the Western India Regional Council (WIRC). This is probably the first time in 20 years that ICAIs Pune branch elections have been called off owing to alleged irregularities. Shripad Inamdar and Sandeep Dhoble Patil stated in their petition that the governing body of the Pune chapter of WIRC had cancelled their nominations without any valid reasons.

In all, 17 people submitted the nomination papers, of which 10 names were shortlisted for the election. The Pune chapter of ICAI has nearly 4,300 chartered accountants as members.

Our nominations have been rejected on the grounds that the address of the proposer does not match with that in the ICAI records.

However, the nomination form does not specify that the professional address must be as per the ICAI records, said Inamdar. He added that out of the 40 members who bought nomination forms, it is unlikely that only 17 would file nominations.

Milind Gramopadhye, chairman of ICAI Pune, said the nominations were rejected for technical reasons and that the two members have made false allegations. However, after consulting our head office, we have taken a decision to cancel the poll and begin a new process very soon, he said.

The complainants had also alleged that the statutory gap of 10 days between the last date of the acceptance of nomination papers and a special general meeting held by the association was not kept.

The voters were to elect eight managing committee members, including four office bearers president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer.

The allegation of irregularities in elections followed by it being called off poses a question mark over our integrity, said Madhav Ganpule, senior member of the Pune branch.