PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by MIC president Datuk Seri G Palanivel and three others who wanted to set aside the order by the Registrar of Societies (RoS) to hold fresh MIC elections.

Judge Datuk Aziah Ali, who chaired a three-man bench, said yesterday the RoS did not exceed its powers when issuing the directive on Feb 6. “It is clear that section 3A confers additional powers to the RoS apart from Section 16 (1) of the Societies Act 1966 to order a fresh election,” she said of the unanimous decision. The bench ordered the four appellants to pay RM90,000 in costs to the RoS, interveners, MIC vice-president Datuk M Saravanan and S Vigneswaran who lost in the 2013 election.

Lawyer Ragunath Kesavan, who represented Palanivel, vice-presidents Datuk S Sothinathan and Datuk S Balakrishnan and former secretary-general A Prakash Rao, told the bench yesterday that the RoS could only invite disputing parties to submit proposals to find an amicable settlement.

“If this failed, the RoS can proceed to deregister the society,” he said, adding that the RoS had exceeded its authority by interfering in how the party should be run.

But Federal Counsel Amerjeet Singh said it was Palanivel who submitted a proposal to the RoS in a letter on Feb 5 to hold elections at all levels. “The RoS, in a letter on Feb 6, agreed to the suggestion by Palanivel,” he added.

On June 15, the Kuala Lumpur High Court dismissed two judicial review applications by the four MIC leaders and the party’s strategic director to challenge the RoS directive.

They were seeking a declaration that the decision of the party’s annual general meeting on Nov 30, 2013, was valid and enforceable. They also sought a court order to strike out the decisions and/or directives of the RoS via three letters on the grounds that they contradicted the Societies Act 1966 and the party’s constitution.

RoS director-general Mohammad Razin Abdullah had in his Feb 6 letter stated that all elections in 2013, including the results of the central working committee, were invalid, saying there was basis to a complaint that illegal branches had participated in the polls. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on July 14, 2015.