5Associate members

(1) The Commission shall associate with itself for the purpose of assisting it in its duties in respect of each State, ten persons five of whom shall be members of the House of the People representing that State and five shall be members of the Legislative Assembly of that State:

Provided that where the number of members of the House of the People representing any State is five or less, then, all such members shall be the associate members for that State and in the latter case the total number of associate members shall be less than ten by such number as by which the total number of members of the House of the People representing that State is less than five.

(2) The persons to be so associated from each State shall be nominated, in the case of the members of the House of the People, by the Speaker of that House, and in the case of members of a Legislative Assembly, by the Speaker of that Assembly, having due regard to the composition of the House or, as the case may be, of the Assembly.

(3) The first nominations to be made under sub-section --(2)

(a) shall be made by the Speakers of the several Legislative Assemblies within one month, and by the Speaker of the House of the People within two months, of the commencement of this Act; and

(b) shall be communicated to the Chief Election Commissioner, and where the nominations are made by the Speaker of a Legislative Assembly, also to the Speaker of the House of the People.

(4) None of the associate members shall have a right to vote or to sign any decision of the Commission.

(5) The Commission shall have power to call upon--

(a) the Registrar-General and Census Commissioner, India or his nominee; or

(b) the Surveyor General of India or his nominee; or

(c) any other officer of the Central Government or State Government; or

(d) any expert in geographical information system; or

(e) any other person,

whose expertise and knowledge are considered necessary by the Commission to provide assistance to it in addition to the assistance provided by the persons referred to in sub-section (1) and the officers and persons so called upon shall be duty bound to assist the Commission.

(6) The Secretary to the Election Commission shall be the ex officio Secretary of the Commission and shall discharge his functions with the assistance of the employees of the Election Commission under the supervision of the Chairperson of the Commission.