Presidential Elections Act, 1937

Local returning officers' expenses.

21.—(1) Every local returning officer at the taking of a poll at a presidential election shall be entitled to his reasonable charges, not exceeding the sums specified in the scale of maximum charges framed under this section, in respect of services and expenses of the several kinds mentioned in the said scale which have been properly rendered or incurred by him for the purposes of or in connection with the taking of the poll.

(2) The amount of such charges shall be paid by the Minister for Finance out of the Central Fund or the growing produce thereof on an account to be submitted to him in accordance with regulations to be made by him under this section, but the said Minister may, if he thinks fit, before payment of the charges of any local returning officer, apply to a judge of the Circuit Court having jurisdiction in the constituency of such returning officer for the taxation of such account and thereupon such judge shall cause such account to be taxed and the amount payable thereunder to be determined by the county registrar.

(3) The Minister for Finance may, if he so thinks fit, on the application of a local returning officer, make to such officer, on such terms as the said Minister shall think proper, an advance on account of the charges of such officer under this section.

(4) The taxation under this section of the account of a local returning officer shall, if the judge so directs on the application of such returning officer, include the taxation and determination of the amount of any claim made by any person against such returning officer in respect of any matter charged for in such account.

(5) The Minister for Finance shall prescribe for the purposes of this section a scale of maximum charges and may revise such scale as and when he thinks fit, and may also make regulations as to the time when and the manner and form in which accounts are to be rendered to him for the purpose of the payment of such charges.