Section 26: Powers of Chairperson
Section 26 closes out the Board's constitutional and administrative provisions by defining exactly what powers the Chairperson personally holds — general administrative superintendence, the ability to delegate scrutiny of incoming matters, and the ability to allocate proceedings among Members.
Quick summary
What Section 26 says
- Clause (a) — general superintendence and giving direction in respect of all administrative matters of the Board.
- Clause (b) — authorise any officer of the Board to scrutinise any intimation, complaint, reference or correspondence addressed to the Board.
- Clause (c) — authorise the performance of any of the Board's functions, and the conduct of any of its proceedings, by an individual Member or groups of Members, and to allocate proceedings among them.
Breaking it down
This section is the Chairperson's own job description, distinct from what the Board as a whole does under Sections 27 and 28. It splits into an administrative-leadership role (clause a), a triage/delegation role (clause b), and a case-allocation role (clause c).
Clause (a) is about running the Board as an institution, not deciding individual cases. “General superintendence and direction” in administrative matters is an organisational-leadership function — setting how the Board operates day to day — distinct from adjudicating any specific complaint or inquiry.
Clause (b) lets incoming matters be triaged efficiently. Rather than every intimation, complaint, reference or piece of correspondence needing the Chairperson's personal attention, this lets that initial scrutiny be delegated to Board officers, keeping the intake process scalable.
Clause (c) is what makes a multi-Member Board actually function as a multi-Member body. By letting the Chairperson allocate specific proceedings to individual Members or groups of Members, the Board can handle multiple matters in parallel rather than requiring the full Board (or only the Chairperson) to handle every single case sequentially.
Why this section matters
A body with a Chairperson and multiple Members needs clear rules for who actually runs day-to-day operations and how caseload gets distributed — otherwise either everything bottlenecks through one person, or authority is ambiguous. Section 26 answers both questions specifically for the Chairperson's role.
Real-world example
How the Chairperson's powers play out with a growing caseload
As breach intimations and complaints increase following Chapter II's 13 May 2027 commencement, the Board's Chairperson uses Section 26 to keep operations manageable.
- Under clause (b) — the Chairperson authorises a team of Board officers to conduct initial scrutiny of every incoming complaint, filtering and organising them before they reach individual Members.
- Under clause (c) — the Chairperson then allocates specific complaints to different individual Members or small groups of Members to handle in parallel, rather than requiring every matter to pass through the Chairperson personally.
- Under clause (a) — the Chairperson separately oversees the Board's broader administrative functioning — staffing, digital-office systems, and general operations — as distinct, ongoing responsibilities.
Who needs to care about this section
- The Board's Chairperson — this section is the specific source of their administrative and case-allocation authority.
- Parties with matters before the Board — understanding that a specific Member or group, not necessarily the Chairperson personally, may be handling their case is useful context, following allocation under clause (c).
Common questions
Does every complaint to the Board have to be personally reviewed by the Chairperson?
Can the Chairperson assign a specific case to a particular Board Member?
What does “general superintendence” over administrative matters actually cover?
Related sections
Section 27 — Powers and Functions of Board
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Read Section 27Section 25 — Members and Officers to be Public Servants
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