Ex-judge K Chandru is press club poll officer

Chennai: The Chennai Press Club will see an election after more than 17 years. Former judge of the Madras high court K Chandru will scrutinise the poll rolls and oversee the conduct of the elections, the high court said in an order here on Monday.
The exercise shall be completed in three months, said Justice M M Sundresh, passing orders on a batch of applications filed by working journalists.
Election to the club was last held in 1999 for a two-year tenure, and since 2005 a group of 'co-opted' office-bearers had been holding charge of the club.
In his order, Justice Sundresh said former judge Chandru, assisted by advocate Balan Haridas, would peruse applications for approval of membership, both already approved and rejected, between March 7, 2011 and August 19, 2016.
Before publishing the voters' list, the designated official (the former judge here) could follow 'any fair procedure,' the order said.
The day-to-day management of the club would be done by the present set of persons 'subject to the condition that they extend all cooperation to the election officer for the smooth conduct of the election,' Justice Sundresh said.
Applications sought fresh elections after scrutiny of membership, and said it should be conducted by a retired judge of the court. Justice Sundresh held in his order that a managing committee which had only two-year tenure could not co-opt office-bearers for eternity. However, since they continued in the position for more than a decade, the court was not keen to change it now, the judge said.