CONSTITUTION

The Association shall be a non-profit making body and shall concern itself with all matters affecting social, cultural, religious, medical care and educational activities and shall participate as conside red expedient, with special reference to the following matters.

The furtherance of good relations between the people of India and Ghana, between the Association and similar organisations, The High Commission of India in Ghana. and promoting fratern all relations among its members and the public in general.

The maintenance of the honour, social standards, discipline and etiquette among its members and with the people of the host country of Ghana.

To keep an over-all eye on the operation of the I.S.C.C. and shall direct its Chairman and his committee members, when and where necessary.

To spend any reasonable sum of money at any time for any approved purpose.

To discipline and advice any member in accordance with the laid down rules and regulations of social and moral behaviour or in its extreme, cause the removal and expulsion of the member from the membership of the Association.

To prepare the Annual Reports, both financial and administrative, for the presentation at the yearly meetings for the adoption by the General Body.

The office of the President is highly exalted, and is supposed to be the image and embodiment of the Association. He is expected to be experienced, mature by age, senior by membership, publicly acceptable figure as impartial, dignified and well versed in general matters.

The President must have been a senior member at least by 5 years of the Association, and must have served in the capacity of preferably Vice-President, Treasurer, Executive Secretary, Social Secretary, Chainnan/l.S.C.C., or should have carried independently, responsibility as a Head of any sub-ad-hoc Committee, unless otherwise so decided by the Executive Committee, and completed his term of office or, if he had resigned, he must have assigned good and valid reasons for doing so.

The President or any other office bearer of the Executive Committee, if he or anyone resigns without a cause showing no reason and vacates his office unceremoniously, would be considered as having deserted and defected his future appointment, caught under this provision.

The President shall preside at all meetings of the Association, except Sub-Committee Meetings, which shall be presided over by their own Chairman, (unless he is chairman of those subcommittees) . He shall bring in or permit any matter to be brought in, delete or defer any business for discussion, whether specified or not on the Agenda, except the proceedings for the Executive Committee Members.

The President shall go through the correspondence of the Association and where necessary, direct and advise the Executive Secretary to deal with the important correspondence. He shall sign the minutes of meetings when adopted. He shall represent the Association in all important matters. Besides his own vote, he has a casting vote in all matters except the election of Executives .

He is a substitute President in the absence of the President, clothed with all the authority and duties for the running of the office when the President is absent from his office. He is expected to have all the qualifications, ability and virtues for the efficient discharge of the responsibilities as the President.

In the absence of the President, he shall preside at all meetings. Where both the President and Vice-president are absent at any meeting, a Chairman for that particular meeting is to be appointed by members present, to preside. All the powers and duties are then conferred upon the Chairman thus appointed for that meeting.

The Treasurer shall collect and receive all fees, subscriptions and donations due to the Association and issue proper receipts. He shall maintain books of accounts properly, for Audit purposes. He shall serve the members with demand notice for the subscriptions or any claims payable to the Association.

He shall present the audited accounts duly examined by the Executive Committee, to the General Body at the annual meeting, for adoption. He shall sign cheques jointly with any other signatory. He shall file the Annual Returns with the Registrar of Companies, together with audited accounts of the Association by the end of January every year.

All the ordinary members form the General Body of the Association. This includes members elected to serve as the Executive Committee members.

As the ethics of conducting the General Body meetings, it is understood and expected that the Executive Committee members will have a common stand on any one issue raised at the General Body meeting, and shall not contradict on any motion, if it has been raised by any of the members at the General Body.

It is expected that the Executive Committee members, prior to general body meetings, shall have agreed, resolved and settled amicably their differences, if any. In the interest of the Association, the uniformity of the opinion among the Executive Committee members is essential. Otherwise the whole exercise will sound as a mockery of meeting. Where a committee member has any dissent ing views, he is expected to keep them reserved, and open them only in the next Executive Committee meeting for further discussion and clarification. General Body members are expected to receive a jointly and unanimously decided reply, when they put any query to the chair.

In order to make decisions binding when taken at any meeting, unless otherwise specified, it is fundamentally important that the members must form the requisite quorum before declaring the meeting open.

Any meeting held without quorum should be considered as null and void for any effective purpose as the decisions shall not be binding. There are various types of meetings; therefore the size of the quorum varies from one type of meeting to the other and this will be explained in respective meetings.

   The President and the Chairman of the ISCC shall not hold, or venture to hold, their office continuously for more than one term of two years, under normal circumstances.

   The remaining Executive Committee members could choose their offices in new capacity, or continue to hold even after the expiry of two years, for another term as decided by election.

   In the event that there is no nomination for the post of PRESIDENT or ISCC CHAIRMAN. the incumbent may stay on for an additional full term of two years, if he agrees to do so voluntarily at the Election Meeting.

   In cases where, for some personal reasons, the President decides not to continue, then the VICE PRESIDENT shall assume presidential responsibilities till a suitable PRESIDENT is selected at the executive level, before the next General Body Meeting. It is important for the Association to have an elected PRESIDENT at all times and that this PRESIDENT satisfies the criteria stated in 9a for this role.

In consultation with the President, the Executive Secretary shall prepare the Agenda for the Executive committee meetings.

The Executive Committee shall prepare the Agenda for the General Body Meetings. The President may at any time, bring in for discussion or consideration any matter not on the Agenda.

Every matter proposed and duly seconded shall be discussed with the permission of the President. The decision on any matter shall be by ballot or show of Hands, whichever convenient under the situation. Every member present shall have one vote,. but the President in addition to his personal vote as a member shall have a casting vote (except in the Election of Executives).

Associate/temporary members shall have no voting rights as it is only for the Principal members or members representing companies, to exercise their right of vote at the meetings.

A Chartered Accountant shall be appointed for the ensuring year at the Annual meeting. He shall audit the accounts of the Association and ISCC.

The Executive Committee or the General Body may appoint sub-committees and their term of reference shall be clearly defined. Such sub-committees shall have to submit their written re-o-ts within reasonable time, as soon as their tasks are completed. Sub-committees shall then be automatically dissolved .

Where any sub-committee member, or any other office bearer, like the President, his Vice, Executive Secretary or any other person alike. by virtue of his office is appointed as additional .. member to serve on any sub-ad-hoc committee, that member, upon tendering his resignation as an Executive Committee member, in whatever position, automatically ceases to continue and hold membership of those sub-committees forth with, vacating the post for any new member as the Executive Committee may deem fit for appointment.

The Association shall not be dissolved unless 75% of the members or more, on this list, would decide in a Special General Body meeting called specifically foiir.t.hiiisilptlfQose. If upon winding up or dissolution of the Association, there remains, after the satisfaction of its debt and liabilities, any assets whatsoever, the same shall not be paid to or disturbed among the members of the Association. The General Body at this special meeting shall then appoint five trustees to manage and administer the affairs of the Association until final dissolution and follow the procedure as laid down in the Companies Code 1963 (Act 179).

The application for membership together with the prescribed fees shall be sent to the Executive Secretary. Such applications must be proposed by an Executive Committee member, either present or past. The application will also be endorsed/seconded by any ordinary member. The secretariat will bring the application before the Executive Committee and it will be scrutinised & passed by them, and then placed on the Agenda of the next General Body meeting, which will then decide by secret ballot on individual application. Collective ballot is forbidden. The applicant becomes a fledged member only after receiving a letter from the secretariat, confirming his membership. Annual subscription covers only one calender year.

It will be the duty of the proposer to ensure that the applicant member attends all General Body meetings, and pays his dues.

After becoming the member of the Association, it will be his duty to attend meetings regularly and observe the rules and regulations as contained in the Constitution, strictly.

The 'Association ' is a voluntary organisation, non-commercial and non-profit making legal entity formed for the social service of the community at large, and citizens of the host country.

It has for its efficient administration, an elected Executive Committee, with full fledged secretariat, which carries out day to day administration without much delay.

The fifteen member Executive Committee six in administrative unit, five in ISCC and four in advisory unit is elected every two years under secret vote by ballot box at the Annual General Body meeting of the Association. The portfolios of the various office bearers are voluntarily opted by them to work for one term of two years.

The office of the Executive Committee member is nonremunerative or simply an honorary post which rather obliges the office bearer to give his time, devote to the social service and to live above expectation. It is a self-sacrificing venture as far as personal interests are concerned. By experience it is a time consuming and seldom rewarding or appreciable social service based on the Holy Gita's teachings "do your duty, expecting no reward".

No sanction is therefore imposed on any member, where there is violation of rules. But advisory caution for improvement

Every matter must be discussed and deliberated upon by the Executive Committee and its deci sion convened to the General Body. The General Body can override the decision of the Executive Committee.

If it so happens, that an urgent matter has been permitted for discussion by the President in the General Body meeting and decision has to be taken at that time, then the President will arrange for a short recess to enable the Executive Committee to meet there and then. The President will arrange and take decision in this case and only in this case the President would not refer the opinion of General Body to Executive Committee for their further deliberations.

lf' the annual fee remains unpaid after repeated notices from the Treasurer, names of defaulting members will be announced at General Body meetings for appropriate decision against the member.

The Executive Committee has the right to expel any uncooperat ive and unscrupulous member from the Association, if he is found to be disrespectful to the Association, or to a member of the Executive Committee. The member so charged will have his conduct thoroughly examined at the Executive Committee meeting and if 75% of the executive members decide in favour of the expulsion, the member accused will be accordingly expe lled from the Association.

In the extreme and unusual case where there is a conflict of interest by any member because of his affiliation with any other registered Indian society in Ghma, with obvious conflicting interest with the Indian Association, then the General Body must decide about renewing/terminating his membership. However in such cases, there must be evidence of conflict of interest.

Members wishing to be elected to serve on the Executive Committee must send their nomination papers duly completed to the Executive Secretary at least 14 days before the date of election, oras to be decided by Executive Committee.

Nomination papers should be proposed by one member and seconded by another member. In the case of the nomination of the President and the Chairman of ISCC, one of the proposers and/or one of the seconders must be either past or present Executive Committee members.

Nomination papers for the post of any other Executive Committee members should be proposed and seconded by any two members.

The Executive Secretary, having received all the nominations, shall place their names on the notice board at the premises of ISCC, preceding the election, as and when decided by the Executive Committee.

No member can propose or second a total of more than two candidates, for the election.

Any irregular, doubtful and mutilated nomination paper will not be accepted and shall be rejected, thus disqualifying the proposed candidate, by the authority of an independent member, usually a neutral member, as most members may be interested parties. This independent member will be appointed by the General Body at the annual election, who will declare the elections as free and fair.

Where no nominations are received for any of the posts, or for some, or for all, the members at the Annual meeting shall elect from the members present to fill these, otherwise un-contested. Their nomination, in these circumstances will be subject to laid down procedures and qualifications as specified in the relevant provisions of this Constitution. Where any posts remains vacant due to no nominations being forthcoming, the Election Officer will ask the members present, if any of them would consider contesting for those particular offices. 'In the event that these offices/ posts still remain vacant and no member comes forward to fill them, then the President elect shall nominate his selected members to take up those posts/offices on the Executive Committee.

The President shall not exercise to hold the right of his casting vote for Annual Elections, or elections of the Executives Committee.

The President shall not hold the office continuously for more than two years, unless as specified in clause ~ 3 iii above.

The Chairman of ISCC shall not hold the office for more than two years continuously, unless as specified in 13 iii above.

Other Executive Committee members could opt to continue or choose to contest in any other position and could be nominated as such.

No member shall hold more than one office at a time, unless expressly so directed by the Executive Committee, for a short period.

No member shall be elected in his absence, to serve on the Executive Committee, or any other committee, unless he has expressed his consent in writing, and which is received by the Secretary before the Annual Elections.

The President or the Chairman of ISCC shall not delegate their individual authority to any other person.

Except at the Annual Elections, the President shall have a casting vote on all matters.