(1) Any person not ineligible for membership of the committee under the provisions of rule 21 or of any other rules or of the Act or of any other Act, may be nominated as a candidate for election.
(2) On or before the date specified for the nomination of candidates under rule 20, between the hours of eleven O’clock of the forenoon and three O’clock of the afternoon or such other hours as the Returning Officer may fix to suit local requirements, each candidate shall, either in person or by his proposer or by an agent and unless such agent is a legal practitioner, his authorization as such duly verified by a Magistrate, Sub- Registrar of the Registration Department, Lambardar or member of a local authority, deliver to the Returning Officer at the specified place, a nomination paper completed in Form I appended to these rules and subscribed by the candidate himself as assenting to the nomination and by an elector as proposer.
(3) In a constituency where a seat is reserved for the Scheduled Castes, Backward Classes and Women either or general category, a candidate shall not be deemed to be qualified to be chosen to fill that seat unless his nomination paper contains declaration by him and verified by any of the authorities mentioned in sub-rule (2) that the candidate is a member of the Scheduled Caste, Backward Classes and women, either of Scheduled Castes or general category, for which the seat has been so reserved. The declaration should also specify the particular caste of which the candidate is a member.
(4) Nothing in this rule shall prevent any candidate from being nominated by more than one nomination paper for election in the same constituency:
Provided that not more than four nomination papers shall be presented by or on behalf of any candidate or accepted by the Returning Officer for election in the same constituency.
(5) On the presentation of a nomination paper, the Returning Officer shall satisfy himself that the names and electoral roll numbers of the candidate and his proposer as entered in the nomination paper are the same as those entered in the roll:
Provided that the Returning Officer may-
(a) permit any clerical error in the nomination paper in regard to the said names or numbers to be corrected in order to bring them in conformity with the corresponding entries in the roll; and
(b) where necessary, direct that any clerical or printing error in the said entries shall be overlooked.
23A Form of affidavit to be filed at the time of delivering nomination papers.- The candidate or his proposar, as the case may be, shall, at the time of delivery of nomination papers to the Returning Officer or Assistant Returning Officer or before 10.00 A.M. on the date of scrutiny of nomination papers under sub-rule (1) of rule 23, also deliver to him affidavit sworn in by the candidate before a Magistrate of the first class or a Notary in Form-1C and Form-1D.